Emory University and RoomBug® Integrate to Provide Enhanced Roommate Browsing and Selection on Facebook Platform®
Gainesville, FL 1/20/10 – Emory University has partnered with RoomBug, an application on Facebook co-developed by Emory graduate Ariel Himmelstern(CIO), to allow incoming freshmen and returning students the option to select their own roommates online using Facebook.
Beginning this spring, over 4,000 Emory University students living on-campus will be able to find and select their own roommates easily via Emory’s password-protected RoomBug network on Facebook Platform, empowering them to search for and communicate with potential roommates online.
“What Emory wanted was a method for students both on campus and around the world to be able to search for and interact with potential roommates.” said Joni Tyson, Assistant Director of Residence Life, Emory University. “RoomBug provides a method for students to do just that in an environment they are already familiar with and utilize on a regular basis”.
RoomBug users can browse through Facebook profiles of potential roommates, finding common friends and searching for users with shared interests such as favorite books and movies. Users are able to interact with each other via Facebook in a variety of ways, including direct messaging, in order to get a better sense of a potential roommate. Michael Hacker, RoomBug CEO, expressed the core essence of RoomBug as “empowering residents to make their own roommate decision rather than leaving it up to fate.” Many university housing divisions have noted that after delivering roommate assignments selected by housing staff, their office was flooded with phone calls from students and parents asking for a new roommate selection based upon Facebook profile data. RoomBug alleviates this problem by integrating Facebook early in the matching process, before rooming decisions have been made.
After roommate matches have been confirmed on RoomBug, Emory students will be directed to the Emory housing website to make their final selection official.
About RoomBug
RoomBug offers collegiate-focused software solutions through Facebook Platform. RoomBug product offerings include RoomBug Campus, RoomBug Off-Campus and RoomBug Referral, which cater to university housing divisions, by-the-bed leasing properties and traditional leasing properties, respectively. RoomBug also offers full integration with universities through Residential Management Systems, the worldwide leader in university housing software. Clients using RMS will automatically receive roommate selections through seamless synchronization between RMS and RoomBug.
RoomBug was recently selected as one of fifty global finalists in the latest round offbFund, Facebook’s seed fund and mentorship program with Accel Partners and Founders Fund, to help enable talented developers and entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses on Facebook Platform.
Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.
About Emory University
Emory University, a private research university located in Atlanta, GA, is internationally recognized for its outstanding liberal arts college, highly ranked professional schools, and comprehensive healthcare system. The University has 11,300 students and 2,500 faculty members who represent all regions of the United States and more than 100 foreign nations. Emory College, the four-year undergraduate division of Emory University, offers a broad and rigorous liberal arts curriculum with over 70 majors and 55 minors. In addition to Emory College, the University encompasses a graduate school of arts and sciences; professional schools of medicine, theology, law, nursing, public health, and business; and Oxford College, a two-year undergraduate division on the original campus of Emory in Oxford, GA.
Media Contacts:
RoomBug: Robert Castellucci, rob@roombug.net
Emory: Joni Tyson, jtyson@learnlink.emory.edu
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