Tonight I got an invitation to my alma mater’s new online alumni community. If you’re not a UVic alumni, there isn’t much there for you. And even then, you have to remember your student number. Do you remember yours? Despite my shoddy memory, I still remember mine. Here’s a screenshot of the home page.
As a frequent user and increasingly-regular creator of online communities, I thought I’d check it out. To be brief, it sure ain’t Flickr. Its design is incredibly staid, and its choice of features is pretty peculiar. Why have a whole tab dedicated to sharing travel advice among alumni? Is that really a top-five priority for this kind of site.
They’ve got a section called blogs which is actually just a bunch of kludged forums (no RSS feeds in sight). That’s emblematic of the implementation–a bit goofy and with little concern for the user.
Here’s the part that made me laugh, though, because it’s a classic. In both the email and on the site’s home page, they say:
We look forward to hearing your suggestions and comments on how we can make it better for you.
But they offer no indication of how to give that feedback. Surely, if they were really keen on comments and suggestions, they’d actually instruct the users how to provide them.
It’s a classic because they give the appearance of being customer-focused without actually do so.
UPDATE: I posted some of my comments inside the system’s, uh, blog. To their credit, they replied, agreed with me (I’m not sure this is to their credit or not) and have already made some changes.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
What’s really funny is that I work at UVic, and am also an alumni, but only found out about this “Community” through your post.
I did sign up, but only to get a chance to win an ipod.
Hi Brian:
This past summer UBC also started up an online community for alumni. It’s actually pretty decent. In this system they have features for your blog feed, resumes (which are searchable), the ability to create networks, topical communities etc…. to name just a few. It does have a few forums for jobs, advice etc…
The only thing is that the majority of people (at the moment) seem to be in their 20s & 30s. What might be a number of reasons for this? The younger set may be more tech savey, with social software being a part of their culture.
I would be interested in seeing how this community would interact in the future.
cheers,
P.
Who’s Brian?
Whoops, sorry. That’s “Darren”. Freudian slip…..(blush).
Dang it. They called me yesterday and I complained to them since I specifically told them to put me on a do not call list…some mumbling about a new database.
Then I told them I wanted to receive news about RSS and be able to easily donate online.
Turns out it’s powered by the oh-so-crappy Online Community Network (http://www.olcnetwork.net/).
Dang it…I need to go ping some people inside the CS department and see if they can replace it…
Hmmm…Darren, want to create an external alumni network?
Boris: Yeah, sure, cause we’re not busy or anything. I do like the idea, though.
I happen to know someone who’s making such a network for a particular department, but not university-wide.
“They give the appearance of being customer-focused without actually do so.”
If there’s a better way to describe UVic than that, I’d like to hear it.
And I say that as a UVic student.