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All things HBCU related

Spelman College Students Win 2010 AT&T Big Mobile on Campus Challenge with “HBCU Buddy”

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AT&T announced that Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller of Spelman College, a historically black liberal arts college for women, have won the 2010 AT&T Big Mobile on Campus Challenge(SM) with their next generation e-learning mobile application, HBCU Buddy.

HBCU Buddy is a mobile application created to educate and inform users, including both prospective and current college students, about Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) across the United States. It is a fully-fledged mobile service application that provides detailed information about each and every HBCU in the nation and integrates all facets of college life.

The application opens with a directory profiling each HBCU with information on academics, admissions, research, student life, alumni, among other details. After selecting a school, students can navigate through the school – literally – by accessing virtual tours of buildings, on-campus videos, and local GPS and directions.

HBCU Buddy can also provide students with customizable social networking features to connect with each other, their school and community. The application connects to social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, and integrates tools such as chat and calendar to help students stay informed. Students can use the application to follow the latest on school club and campus happenings, local events, hot spots around the community, and more.

Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller were recognized and awarded a $10,000 scholarship (divided between them) and a mobile device of their choice each at the Higher Ed Board of Advisors Meeting in Miami, Florida, on October 7, 2010. The pair will be demonstrating their HBCU Buddy application in the AT&T booth #1433 at the EduCause National Convention in Anaheim, California, on October 12-14, 2010. Additionally, they will be invited to participate on the judging committee for the 2011 AT&T Big Mobile on Campus Challenge.

“HBCU Buddy is an outstanding mobile application, embodying everything this contest is about: providing a platform for higher education students to develop their innovative ideas into practical and useful e-learning mobile applications,” said Chris Hill, Vice President, Advanced Enterprise Mobility Solutions, AT&T Business Solutions (ABS).

“No one can indentify higher education opportunities and needs better than the students themselves. Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller of Spelman College saw a need and created an application that truly enhances the college experience for HBCU students. The application provides students with access to the most relevant information in real-time.”

AT&T Big Mobile on Campus Challenge for full-time college students was established in 2008 to recognize innovative and creative mobile applications that enhance the educational process for higher education students.

NING changes force AlumniUnit to ask for support

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E-letter sent to the AlumniUnit Consortium on 10/13/10:

Dear Unit Member,
Because of the Homecoming season, we have received a tremendous amount of inquires as to what going on with your Unit and the HBCU Unit Networks as whole. NING (our social-network platform) changed hands of ownership this past summer, and brashly decided to raise the costs to operate our networks…significantly.

After several weeks of talks and reasoning, we were unsuccessful in convincing them to honor the operating costs for our 33 Unit networks under our previous developer. The new pricing structure raised operating costs by more than 400% (this is not a typo). This is based on how many HBCU Unit networks we manage and the amount of members in each.

As most of you know, it has been our goal to ensure that each Unit network is enjoyed at NO charge to its users and be looked upon as an exclusive environment to connect with the extended family and friends of their Alma maters.

Under the old pricing structure, the advertisement banners you would see throughout the networks usually covered the costs incurred to operate them. However, due to the overall economy and social media landscape, ad revenue has waned quite a bit. Because of this, we made the decision to suspend the operation of ‘separate’ networks, and forward all Units to HBCUUnit.com until further notice.

Since the suspension of individual Unit networks we have been confronted by Ning, promoters, alumni office directors, data companies and others interested in buying respective Unit networks….but, we will NOT sell out.

Unit networks have always been (and will remain) powered by Alumni, exclusively for Alumni. It is in this spirit we challenged ourselves to come up with solution to restore Unit networks, while benefiting the members within the network at the same time.

Today, we FINALLY unveil the following solution and policy:

  • We have set up a UNIT Donation page on AlumniUnit.com with ALL the Unit Networks listed.
  • ANY donation amount can be submitted towards the Unit.
  • Each month, donors of $20 or more will be credited on the Unit’s site under the “DONORS” tab. Your Name (or Business) will be recognized there with a an optional hyperlink to the website/url of your choice.
  • 5 or more donors of $20 in a monthly period will be included in an email-blast sent directly to all members of your Unit in lieu of their support. *Team up with other business owners*

So there you have it…We hope that you find this solution to be beneficial and effective. (Unit site administrators across the country are absolutely ecstatic about it)
As usual, we welcome the feedback of all members and want to be of service to you in any way possible.

Thank you, and God bless.

The AlumniUnit.com Team
U-nifying N-etworking I-nforming T-ranscending

ps. You may continue to enjoy the AlumniUnit.com blog, and the HBCUUnit.com social network in the meantime.