There is a new way for Sacramento State students to get more information about what’s happening on-campus through an online forum: www.csusforum.com.

Freshman Kyle Cunningham created the forum when he had to do an assignment for his seminar class. He found, through his research, that it was difficult to get information about the clubs and organizations, as only titles and an e-mail addresses were provided on the university’s website.

Cunningham said that this confusion about the websites was what inspired him to make it easier for students to get information about Sac State and its clubs.

“I felt that the website was very vague, so I decided to put together a forum where all the clubs, organizations and the students can unite in one place,” Cunningham said.

The creator said the forum differs from the one provided for Sac State students who have a MySpace, for there are separate sections for each club on campus.

Communications Professor Nick Burnett, who is also the chair of the department, said communicating face-to-face is better for getting information. However, he said it’s good that people are communicating with each other through any means.

“The rap against the Internet has always been that it has a tendency to increase social isolation and solitary individuals surfing the Web,” Burnett said, adding that, in turn, people have the tendency to not leave the house or reach for genuine human contact.”

Burnett said social networking websites can correct the problem of anti- socialization, and that it is a good way to bring people who have common interests together.

Burnett voiced concerns about websites being bought out by bigger corporations and then changed from what they were originally supposed to be.

“One danger to note is the potential commercial exploitation of these sites, and as they get larger and more popular the temptation to sell out to a larger corporate entity who may not share the originator’s commitment to social networking goals increases,” Burnett said.

Cunninghman said he put a simple Google ad sense bar on the website to make up for the $186 dollars that he spends every month on the site, but he only gets $0.70 back for the Google ad.

Cunningham added that when the website becomes more popular, he will consider charging clubs and organizations to advertise on the website.

Dana Salisbury said he likes the new website better than the MySpace site in an e-mail interview.

However, Salisbury had one complaint: that there is not enough people using the website.

“I like using forums like this one,” Salisbury said. “It is fun to talk to other people that have the same things in common with me. Since we all go to Sac State, we should all try to talk to each other; but my one complaint is there is not that many people on the site yet.”

Freshman Daniel Vasilchuk, a chemistry major, said the new forum is better than the MySpace forum and that it will be getting better in the future.

“The interface of csusforum.com is way more advanced than the simplistic one of MySpace, and it provides outlets for various subjects which the user can easily access and thus not have to shift from subject to subject as it happens on the MySpace forum.”

Vasilchuk added that the website could be used by possible prospective employers who are looking for people in the future.