By Meghan Finlayson

Staff Writer

A group of students is launching a public alpha of a new social media network called “Spling.com.”

“Spling is a hybrid between social networking and media microblogging. Think Twitter, except instead of sharing statuses, users share media and entertainment in a more interactive interface,” said Billy McFarland ’14, computer science and engineering major and CEO of the company.

Users will be able to post any kind of media to their pages and share it with friends. The site will combine networking and media sharing.

“Spling is the first social networking site of its kind that has the sole purpose of entertainment through media sharing,” said CIO Bob Manning ’13.

The idea was conceived about six months ago.

“I have known [of Billy’s] success with creating a couple other online businesses. Since his last success I had always told him that I was excited to be involved with a venture in the future, so the decision for myself to invest was a no-brainer in my mind,” Greg Gianis ’13 said.

Those involved are anticipating a good response to spling.com by University students and students across the country.

“Spling.com has original features that other social networks don’t have. We are working on designing a point system that rewards users for posting unique and popular media onto their page, and other users can rate the media. I think that this creates an addicting feature to Spling.com, because it makes the users want to post unique and exciting media,” Mark Parsons ’13 said.

The management of the company is mostly student-run. In addition, campus representatives at universities across the country are helping with the launch.

“Some of the colleges [involved] include Duke, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Cornell, Ohio State, Stanford, Army, Princeton, Miami (Florida), NYU, USC and Villanova,” Manning said.

These “campus reps” will endorse Spling.com through promotional campaigns and by word of mouth.

“I am really excited for the launch of the website because I think it will spread around Bucknell very fast, and I am anxious to see how well it expands outside of the campus,” Parsons said.