Arizona State University (ASU), for example, has a social networking platform that helps students spot each other on their laptops and smart phones.
More than 600 ASU Online students are connected to spark, a site that allows students to check in when they enter a library, coffee shop, or anywhere else in their community.
The hope is that other ASU web-based students will see a virtual classmate in a nearby coffee shop and stop by to say hello.
Spark is powered by San Francisco-based Double Dutch.
Instead of posting your location on a vast social network – especially Facebook Places – spark is only accessible to ASU Online students with university-issued eMail address, creating “micro-communities based on place-based networks,” said Lawrence Coburn, Double Dutch CEO.
“We’re not taking the mega-app approach here,” he said. “We are starting to see more demand for single purpose niche networks … because people don’t want to tell 1,000 people that they’re at the gym.”
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