After college, Joanna Giordano '04 went to Japan to teach. But even halfway around the world from Hanover, Giordano managed to find other Dartmouth alumni nearby through InCircle, the College's new online social network.
"Hooray for exclusive Dartmouth facebook!" Giordano wrote online to three other alumni in Japan.
The Office of Alumni Relations unveiled InCircle, an online network available exclusively to Dartmouth alumni and students, last week. The network's creators envision a virtual alumni club that will use technology to go beyond existing associations.
All of the College's almost 70,000 alumni and students are eligible to become members by visiting incircle.dartmouth.edu and signing up. As of earlier this week, 3,000 people have registered with InCircle, conducting over 44,000 profile searches after just the first few days of the site's operation, InCircle's director Jan Bent MALS'82 said.
According to Stanley Colla '66 Tu'86, vice president of alumni relations, the system provides a chance to augment but not necessarily replace current alumni clubs, which, he said, too often rely on formalized institutions.
InCircle will fill the demand for a more informal means of connecting with other Dartmouth alumni.
"The nice thing about InCircle is that there are many different ways in which an individual can take advantage of it," Colla said.
Although students are already using InCircle to look for housing and network for jobs, Colla expressed his desire that the site serve not only as a means for job advice but also as a social network where like-minded people can interact and plan social activities. It will also provide young alumni contacts in areas where formalized alumni organizations do not exist, he said.
Rex Morey '99, who works with Alumni Relations to oversee InCircle, is a new member of the network.
An undergraduate rugby player, Morey said the site allowed him to search for others who played at Dartmouth and limit his search to those living in the region where he plans to live.
InCircle developed in part to overcome the security concerns of the current alumni directory system, which limits search results, Bent said.
InCircle's users, by comparison, can locate contact information by searching across a variety of fields including occupation, location and interests.
The site operates like thefacebook.com in that members can ask other members to be their friends. Primary, secondary and tertiary contacts are all included in one's social network.
But InCircle is exclusive to the Dartmouth community and can therefore take advantage of unique opportunities, Colla said.
He emphasized the ease of the system, which inputs existing contact data at the discretion of the user.
An ad hoc alumni group came up with the idea about two years ago, and Colla discovered InCircle, the creation of two Stanford University alums, while attending a conference in Palo Alto, Calif.
Bent, the director of alumni information resources, said she is optimistic about the success of the network. She was especially excited about the prospect of alumni being able to better interact with current students, something she said "alumni love."
Other schools like the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan have reportedly released similar programs, but they have chosen to broaden their networks while Dartmouth's InCircle remains exclusive to students and alumni.
Alumni Relations plans to publicize InCircle with a media campaign that will include a raffle with prizes for those who sign up.