Aug 31, 2008

ON COLLEGE: Startup creates 'Schools' Facebook tool

By Jason Katz / Daily News Columnist

Q: Are any colleges or universities using Facebook?

A: A startup company called Inigral, which was started in the basement of one of its co-founders' parents' Palo Alto home, has started a Facebook application called "Schools," which focuses on socialization on campus, according to Inigral's co-founder, Michael Staton.

Staton, a former high school teacher, said that one of the favorite features of early users of Facebook was a feature that allowed users to share information about college courses they were enrolled in. This feature, which had over 300,000 users, was dropped after Facebook expanded beyond its original campus-only concentration.

As a result, Staton and the other co-founders of Inigral, decided there was a need for a Facebook application that allows campus users to sort through other users by what they have in common - common courses, common clubs, common student organizations, common dorms, common sports teams, etc.

They decided they needed to make an application specific to each college, and they needed to have the blessing of each member college's administration. The outcome, Schools, is an application that each member college pays for to allow its students access. Schools syncs up with data systems that the colleges already have and allows its users to stay on top of classes and other student activities that other users are joining.

According to Staton, Schools solves two problems.

First, many colleges and universities want to use Facebook but aren't sure how to do so because of privacy concerns. Schools verifies its users through official student IDs or unique college e-mail addresses.

Second, many college instructors and administrators want to communicate with students through Facebook, but an instructor asking to be a student's "friend" on Facebook can lead to many issues. Schools bypasses this problem and allows instructors and administrators to communicate with students without actually "friending" them on Facebook.

According to Staton, two institutions of higher learning, which are technologically progressive have already signed up for the Schools service - Abilene Christian University and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Abilene Christian University has been quick to adapt new technologies and gives out free iPhones to all incoming freshman.

Staton stated that Inigral doesn't want more than three colleges using Schools right now because he wants to continue enhancing the application before moving to a larger audience. He said that 20 colleges have already inquired about Schools, and he expects more colleges to sign on by next spring.



Jason Katz is an independent college counselor and is founder of JKatz College Counseling in Redwood City. E-mail Katz at jkatz@jkatzcollegecounseling.com.