Two up-and-coming Mark Zuckerbergs from Chennai's very own Madras Christian College are on the verge of losing their dream social networking project. Why? Because they're broke.
Sam Zevo and Harsh Vardhan, both first year BCA students, set up MCC's very own social networking site — www.waydesk.com — and got it live and running with their own money for the first month but stand to lose all their work by the end of the day. The duo needs to renew their website server every month and are unable to pay from their own pockets this time and are seeking help from MCC's alumni community.
All they need is Rs 6,820 to keep the server space, but they don't seem to have found it yet. And the college authorities have apparently refused to bankroll the project — something that would cost less than painting a building block, or a classroom even.
Hang on, why do we need another social networking site?
Like with Facebook itself, WayDesk too began because someone needed information, without having to go too far. "I joined the college a little late so there were a lot of formalities that I needed to keep going to the office for. Once I had to go to the office to get my calendar for the year, the staff noticed that there were mistakes in the calendar so a couple of students were helping them rectify it. At this point, one of the teachers said it was about time that we had our own app to keep track of the dates," explained Sam Zevo.
Sam recalled that other teachers also discussed how instead of doing regular college projects, students could come up with innovative ways to help the college in such activities. "That is when it struck me that it would be really cool to have a separate Facebook type networking site for MCCians. A place where they can keep track of the day order, the period, announcements, exam schedules and extra-curricular activities as well," Sam said.
Promotion platform for amateur talent
Sam and Harsh then developed 'WayDesk' - a platform where besides academic activities like exam schedules, periods and attendance, MCCians could also get in touch with people they would otherwise not talk to, be updated on college activities, get help from seniors and confide in them, encourage juniors to participate too. "There are also lots of MCCians who upload videos or generally display their talents online but might not get noticed, with our own network, we can promote such talent to get more attention," Sam explained.
Only a one month run?
The duo says that they wanted to launch the network in a big way with approval from the management as well, but wasn't able to do so. "We approached our department professors who were impressed with the work but didn't show too much interest. They even said they would take it up with the higher ups but never really did so," said Harsh.
After a while, the duo was asked by their department to drop the project and take up something else. "We have been trying to reach out to the alumni to get their help but haven't been able to. We cannot afford to fund it for another month and if we don't pay up, we lose everything. We lose all the data, all the hard work we've put in for so long will all be gone," Vardhan said.