By
Jeff Tripoli
December 5, 2006
Amid the many social networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook that are vying for the valuable college-aged demographic, one company is hoping to stand out. Local company RIPL Corp. recently unveiled their own competitive bid exclusively for University of Washington students: RIPL.com.
The Web site, still in its beta "preview" stage, allows users to create a profile, upload images and customize their profile, much as its aforementioned competitors. RIPL Corp. holds that there are many differences that make its site an improvement on the concept.
"One of the things that really stands out about RIPL is that first MySpace, and more recently Facebook, are unrestricted," said RIPL Corp. CEO Bill Messing. "This allows all kinds of unsavory people to view poke around and view your information."
RIPL resolves this by making membership available by invitation only, Messing said. This means users must be invited by somebody who is already a member.
Another membership requirement is a UW e-mail address, although the doors will eventually be opened for other colleges to participate while still maintaining the invitation-only system.
"We made a decision for its beta period...[that] you have to have a UW account," said marketing manager Patrick Barthe. "This still gives us a community of about 100,000 people including faculty and students. It's a closed community, but very dynamic, very robust."
Another improvement RIPL offers is a better privacy features, Messing said.
"If you're at all conscious of who is seeing your content, the support for permissioning is just not there," Messing said. "We've got a whole new level of permissioning, which means the guys in your frat won't see the same pictures as your mom will, and for good reasons."
One of the key selling points of RIPL.com is its customizability, he said. Each profile page includes a number of boxes that can be resized and rearranged in real-time. Color schemes, images and backgrounds can be added by the user at will. The site also allows users to share content such as pictures and iTunes playlists with other users.
Advertising is handled a bit differently than comparable sites, said Jeff Lehman, chief revenue officer.
"We're the first social network that really has looked at advertising from the ground up," he said. "Users will get to choose which advertisers they want to sponsor [on] their page. The whole thing is a collaboration between us and the users...We're treating advertising like its content."
While the beta version is largely exclusive, potential users can request an account at the home page http://www.ripl.com.
Reporter Jeff Tripoli: jefftripoli@thedaily.washington.edu
3 Comments
#1 Jonathan Ng
on December 5, 2006 at 12:56 a.m.(Issaquah, WA | Unverified Name)
I wouldn't even concentrate on advertising yet...build osmething worthwhile, then advertise.
#2 Honni van Rijswijk & Matthew James Vechinski
on December 29, 2006 at 10:41 a.m.(Bellevue, WA | Unverified Name)
[Note: We did email this letter to The Daily, but given that it was sent out in the latter part of the last week of classes, it didn't make it in the 12/8 issue. Now that the article is dated it seems unlikely that our comment will be printed when the newspaper resumes publication in January.]
To the editors and staff of The Daily:
We were happy to that you considered online social networking interfaces that provide alternatives to MySpace and Facebook in your December 5 cover story, “RIPL gives Myspace, Facebook competition.†But we found it unfortunate that you had decided to prominently feature a report about a for-profit company’s web site still in its “preview†stage. Jeff Tripoli’s article portrays exclusivity and restricted access as advantages of RIPL without questioning the nature of the community that such an environment creates. The assumption is that increased privacy and “invitation-only†membership will allow students to express themselves freely and fully because site features will control access to their information. Clearly, these safety measures would curtail some or even many networking possibilities. In addition, Tripoli emphasizes college students as a “demographic†participating in advertising by “sponsor[ing]†the companies they like. This, too, calls into question the underlying purpose of networking on the site.
It is our hope that in the future we can talk to The Daily about the Creating Community Through Blogging website (http://community.uwblogs.org), which we also see as an attractive alternative to MySpace and Facebook. Our project differs from RIPL in that we promote blogging to produce multiple connections within the university and between the university and the wider community. We aim to achieve this goal precisely not by restricting access but by asking users to use their actual names and everyday identities to participate in multi-author environments with real world stakes. Classrooms and organizations on campus are already networking on this site, though it, too, is only in the beginning stages. We are a project that is sponsored by the Simpson Center for the Humanities that involves UW students, faculty, and staff, which was created to fill a gap in online resources already available to the university community. We would be happy to receive publicity from The Daily as we are a volunteer run, not for profit group providing a free service to the University of Washington and beyond.
Yours sincerely,
Honni van Rijswijk & Matthew James Vechinski
Cofacilitators, Creating Community Through Blogging
info@uwblogs.org
http://community.uwblogs.org
#3 Tabitha
on February 8, 2007 at 12:50 p.m.(Everett, WA | Unverified Name)
I think that the notes on My Space are false because when you first get a My Space you have the right t make your profile public or private and I chose to make my profile private and I have only added my friends and people.
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