For students who plan to work or study in Boston after they graduate, a new social media Web site offers a way for them to network and connect to the city even before they leave Penn.
Bostonworldpartnerships.com will be primarily informational and there is no cost to join. The site, the first of its kind in the country, will include blogs, profiles of entrepreneurs and business leaders, chat networks and information about local events.
"The site is designed to serve as a vehicle for real people to express their unique knowledge and perspectives and passion about Boston," said Dave McLaughlin, executive director of Boston World Partnerships.
Boston is a leader in health care, higher education and the life sciences, according to McLaughlin. For students interested in working or studying in those fields, the site will provide a way for them "keep tabs on the latest news and opportunities."
Penn students from the Boston area expressed interest in the site as a way to find summer internships and jobs after graduation.
Engineering junior Monica Thomas said the site sounds like it could keep her "up-to-date on business in Boston."
She said she is hoping to find a summer job in the engineering field, and wants to work in Boston so she will be able to live at home.
But College junior Emma Morgenstern said that right now the site does not seem very "student-oriented."
"As the idea expands and extends into different domains, and as I enter the real world possibly in 2010, I could see it becoming more useful," she said.
While Philadelphia does not have a counterpart to the site being developed in Boston, the city is " always looking for new, innovative and cost-effective ways to promote networking and communication in Philadelphia," Luke Butler, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Nutter, wrote in an e-mail.
The Philadelphia government is redesigning its Web site to incorporate social-networking elements and is also developing "web communities," through which city employees can share ideas, Butler wrote.
Boston World Partnerships provides information on a wide range of fields, unlike other industry-specific sites.
McLaughlin said he hopes the site will help "keep Bostonians at Penn connected to home."
