CampusLIVE

CampusLIVE: A One-Stop Web Shop for Students

Originally appeared October 8th, 2007 in the BroadsideOnline (link)
Written by Online Tech Blogger Jimmy Rogers

This week I was able to talk with the Boris Revsin, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Head Engineer of CampusLIVE. CampusLIVE is a new, Mason-oriented homepage that aggregates weather, news, University links, Facebook, and much more. Mr. Revsin was kind enough to answer some of my questions:

How is CampusLIVE different from other sites students might choose as their home page?

The CampusLIVE website was created to assist students in day-to-day tasks. We know that there are weather websites, various search engine
sites, news sites, restaurant sites and especially tons of specific college resources that students use everyday. Every day I will read Techcrunch, read
the Daily Collegian at UMass, search for some of the items mentioned on Wikipedia and check my Facebook. And then, at noon, I’ll order lunch. And
I am not alone; the variety of information that is disseminated on the web is enormous. CampusLIVE strives to bring together everything (eventually!)
a college student will need on a daily basis, and provide him/her with the best possible user interface for navigating the billions of pages on the web.
A campus is a community and social networking is an awesome tool, but when students need to get something done they need resources and a jumping off
point, and that is what we are all about.

CampusLIVE has common features such as weather, news and links, but what are some of the more innovative features that your team has created?

The ability to customize weather, news feeds and links are at the core of any good homepage. Of course that is also not nearly enough.
Students love Facebook. I love Facebook. So, our team developed a quick and easy way to bring Facebook to your CampusLIVE homepage. Messages, friend
requests, groups and more all on your homepage… always.

Our favorite current feature however, is our restaurant module. Sure, there are tons of places to go to find restaurants in the area. Why not Google
it and see which restaurant is paying the most for that top placement? Instead, we work hard to enter in all the information we possibly can about each
restaurant. We tell you when its open (delivery, takeout and dine-in respectively) and we don’t just list the times. Our system automatically outputs
the open restaurants at your school without any hassle. We go one step further: we give you the actual graphical menu that the restaurant provides its
customers… and we update it constantly. To have your favorite restaurant on the frontpage, just click “Add to Favorites”. Of course,
we also provide ratings and reviews.

Last but not least, CampusLIVE is tailored specifically to your schools needs. On the left sidebar we place all of the important links around campus
(homepage, the Broadside, Patriot web, local and collegiate sports sites) and we do it with style. If we missed something, just let us know.

What kind of relationship does CampusLIVE have with Mason? Are you working closely with the administration?

As a small student-run startup we are focusing on what we know best. And we know students best. One of our dedicated interns Chris Ziomek is a former
Mason student and our representative Brendan Murphy on campus is a current student at the school. We’ve spoken for hours about what George Mason
students need on campus and what restaurants are most popular. GMU has an excellent faculty, but our opinion is that the true inspiration comes from
the students and the administration. Not one or the other. If you are a Mason student and you want to be involved with CampusLIVE then you’ll
speak directly to Jared (the CEO), Jeff (VP, Marketing) or myself. We don’t have secretaries or office managers to give you the run-around.

What new parts of the page are you currently working on to roll out in the future?

We’re constantly working with students to improve the site. In the very near future students can expect more Facebook functionality (photos, status
updates, etc), new ways to sort through their favorite restaurants (by rating, popularity, and more), all the local bars and specials and a little widget
which will let you enter your classes and keep track of where you have to be, and when. Think what Facebook used to have but high powered and more functional.
Of course, there’s more in the works that will be rolled out this year — but we’re keeping some of those under wraps until they are
perfect.