RIT students launch social networking site

I’ll admit it. University News doesn’t know about all the amazing work that is being done on campus. That’s largely because not all of it is being done inside the classroom—a great deal of it is taking place in dorm rooms, instead.

That’s where second-year students Josh Olin and Ian Paterson created www.mytimehero.com, a social networking Web site that they hope will redefine the social networking experience for everybody—not just the teeny-boppers, college students and twenty-somethings that currently make their cyber homes on sites such as and . Olin and Paterson designed mytimehero.com to have cross-generational appeal. The concept was simple: in today’s age of cyber predators, many adults didn’t feel comfortable registering as a user on one of the other social networking sites. Their site, is designed to change that perception.

I’ve blogged before about the wonders of Google News Alerts…and I’ll praise them again, now. We had no idea what these students were working on until we saw a news release come through Google as part of a public relations service the two students had subscribed to. Within an hour, with Paul and Kelly chipping in, we were able to track down the students. They are roommates in Computer Science House, one of RIT’s special interest housing areas.

Good thing we found them, too. Shortly thereafter we started receiving phone calls from local television stations. WHAM-13 and WROC/FOX came out to interview the students. A brief appeared in the Democrat and Chronicle business section, announcing the launch of the site.

Once again, thanks Google!