The Social Network

Mike Madarasz

Facebook’s initial public offering is now less than two weeks away.  The craze surrounding it will almost certainly cause it to be overvalued initially.  More importantly, the release raises the question of just how viable Facebook will be in the long run.  Whether Facebook will remain mainstream in the future or join MySpace in the digital graveyard is a hotly debated topic. 

Many people believe that at this point Facebook is so widely used that it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to take their place in the realm of social media.  The way I see it, it is only a matter of time until the “next Zuckerburg” arrives and offers something that trumps Facebook.  There is always going to be something better and more advanced that will come along.  If you asked anyone five or six years ago if AOL Instant Messenger would ever be dated, I’m sure you would get the same response as if you asked an identical question about Facebook today.  Ultimately, I see two factors opening the door for competitors down the road.

1.    A site with a more narrow focus will move in.  Facebook seems like they are already starting to over expand.  Newsfeeds are now cluttered with notifications about Words With Friends, Spotify and friends viewing videos and reading articles.  I can see this trend starting to frustrate people in the future.  Much like the way Facebook originally catered to college students and made MySpace obsolete, another site with a narrower focus could crop up and get a foothold in the market. 

2.    A site will be able to aggregate everything and make the internet a one stop experience (cough cough Google).  Google now competes with Facebook via Google+ .  Users can already search the internet, access their e-mail, get directions, instant message and search YouTube on one site.  It is only a matter of time before Google, or another site, is able to patch all of these services together under a single umbrella.

I am now about to post the link to this blog on Facebook.  Stay tuned though because at this time next year, it may be posted to MySpace, Google+ or something we haven't heard of yet.

Spring Fling

Shavonna Hinton

I miss being a kid (but I’m glad I’m growing up). Based on the events of this past weekend, however, it sure was great to be a kid again if only for a couple hours. The 5 hours of fun provided by the SAPB of Binghamton at Spring Fling were arguably some of most fun and enjoyable hours I’ve spent on Binghamton’s campus all year.

From fried dough and candy apples to carnival rides and bouncy houses, I really felt like I was at a carnival right in the middle of the Peace Quad. I won prizes and amassed copious amounts of candy and sweets. In addition, it also happened to be Cinco de Mayo which meant there were also strawberry daiquiris and margaritas for just $2.

Hearing grown college kids screaming like 8 year olds at an amusement park and getting to do arts and crafts, like splatter painting Frisbees, are events not commonly found on a college campus but Spring Fling had that sort of effect on stressed out overworked students. In the midst of preparing for finals and getting prepared for the summer, it was great to sit back and relax and let my mind take a break on a great Saturday Afternoon.  I’m sure everyone else appreciated it too.

Meeting the POBUS

John Minami

Tuesday night I was cordially invited to attend a dinner meeting with the POBUS (President Of Binghamton University SUNY).  It was just one of a series of dinner meetings that the POBUS was having with various students ranging from freshmen in Dickinson to seniors living off campus.  And overall, I enjoyed the evening pretty well.

I had expected to dine with him alone, but instead there were about eight students and two faculty members present at the dinner.  We pushed together a few tables in C4 and sat in a misshapen circle talking about how our lives were.  The students shared their majors and campus activities while the POBUS gave us some insight into the inner workings of a university president.  The revelation of the night: Harvey Stenger (a.k.a. the POBUS) is a person. 

All year I was plagued with news of a “new president” who would be presiding over Binghamton University.  However, in all honesty, I didn’t really care.  I had never met the man and I had absolutely no choice or say in whatever decisions he made regarding the campus.  I had not consented for this person to decide how my college life would go.  For all I knew, he could’ve disbanded the Crew team (a huge part of my college life) and hiked tuition up a thousand dollars.  He was a far-off giant who apparently had a significant amount of control over my life and I didn’t know how he would use that control over me.  When I had invited to the dinner, I didn’t expect much out of it.  My mindset walking into the dining hall was: “He’s just doing this as a formality to make it seem like he cares about the students.  In the end, he’s going to have the school and his own best interest in mind.”  I couldn’t have been more wrong.

What I learned about the POBUS through our dining experience was that he used to be a chemistry teacher at the University of Buffalo who also taught a computer science class.  He’s a loving husband who is taking his wife out to a play this weekend.  He recently defused his first student protest (the grad students wanted more money for Teacher Assistantships).  He is a great father who has a daughter in college.  He’s working with various local and state groups/organizations to control our exploding deer population.  Most of all, he cares about the students.  I had expected him to treat this dinner with little interest or care but I could see that as our dinner conversations progressed he genuinely cared about the Binghamton students.  I was amazed at how much interest he took in what we had to say to him and the way he shared so much of what was going on in his life with us, a group of younger (but not that much younger) adults. 

Sitting next to him in C4, I didn’t feel like I was talking with the POBUS.  It felt more like talking to an old acquaintance who I was catching up with.  It felt very relaxed and casual and I loved every moment of it.  We got to know each other as actual human beings and as more than just faculty and student.  I am not sure if the POBUS is holding any more of these dinners but if anyone has the opportunity to attend them, I would definitely do so.

To President Stenger: Good luck with running the university because your job and my future depend on it.  But I’m not worried because I am sure we will both be fine in your very capable hands.