NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Monday, June 7, 2004 - 3
Green Machine
Website offers forum for
inter-college friendships
By Anal Sankarwergmann
For the Daily
From their first days in college, freshman
search to meet the people with whom they can
create substantial friendships and bonds. Theface-
book.com - a new site aimed at students, alumni
and faculty - seeks to be a catalyst in creating
friendships among the college crowd.
The website contains a database of profiles,
including a personal profile, pictures, classes and
interests.
Created in February by Har-
vard sophomore Mark Zucker-
berg, Thefacebook.com already "(The web
has 34 participating colleges and bringMid
over 100,000 members.
Spokesman Chris Hughs said the the nation
website plans on adding 100
more colleges in the next year. scene. TJh(
"We did not know if people can make
would join. We just wanted to
build a website that had social like a smal
networking. We did not know COmmuni
to what extent they would; we
just took a shot in the dark
about what the website would
look like, and we were close
to right," Hughs said about
initial concerns.
Over 2,000 University affiliates are mem-
hers of the wehsite.
"(Thefacehook.com) helps bring Michigan
into the rest of the national college scene, and
the more you can make a large college like
Michigan feel like a smaller, closer community,
h
e
the better," said Pauline Lewis, a recent gradu-
ate and member of Thefacebook.com.
Despite positive reviews and a large user data-
base, some students such as LSA sophomore Lisa
Luthaner criticized the site. Luthaner said she
feels people seem to spend too much time "adver-
tising themselves for people," and added that she
thinks people can take this type of online commu-
nity "too seriously."
The idea of a community is something that
Hughs said he has thought about often. Although
he acknowledges that communicating through the
website "challenges face-to-
face communication," he
site) helps said it does not destroy it.
Istead, Hughs argues that
Uigf into" it helps to "foster inter-
al college personal relations." He
added that a program like
more you Thefacebook.com helps to
Michigan feel eliminate that uncomfort-
able feeling of striking up
ler, closer the first conversation with
the better" " "someone.
y, Although students are
the primary users of the
- Pauline Lewis site, some faculty and
Alum alumni take part in it.
Hughs said this is likely to
change because many of
the site's users are graduating seniors. Therefore,
he said he expects alumni to become a significant
presence on the site.
He added that this factor could be beneficial to
students looking to network with alumni from dif-
ferent colleges in the country.
Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje takes a look at a new Ford Escape Hybrid SUV on display at
Arbor Green Fair on June 4. Ford calls the car the "world's cleanest, most fuel-efficient SI
MADSTONE
Continued from Page 1
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