June 10, 2009, 09:07 AM ET
Princeton Alumni Association Introduces iPhone-Friendly Web Site
Princeton University alumni didn’t have to search for information about last month’s reunions weekend. There’s an app for that.
Thanks to a new iPhone-friendly Web site developed by the university’s information-technology office, alumni celebrating class reunions at the university’s campus this year could access event schedules, maps, and news alerts on iPhones and other smartphones.
The site is believed to be the first of its kind for a college or university reunion, said Andrew Gossen, senior associate director for the university’s Alumni Association.
Mr. Gossen, who is a 1993 Princeton graduate, said the site attracted 1,590 unique visitors and 15,368 page views during the weeklong event, which typically attracts 9,000 Princeton alumni and 20,000 total visitors to the campus. Graduating seniors as well as alumni from classes as early as the 1970s used the site. The most popular features included event schedules, hotel information, and a global-positioning system that tracked campus shuttle buses.
The introduction of the site also coincided with the event’s 150th anniversary.
“I think the alumni are into that, being able to mark this kind of an anniversary with a new concept like this,” Mr. Gossen said. “We like the statement it makes about the potential to incorporate new technologies into longstanding traditions.”
Building and publishing the application, called Reunions 2009, cost around $7,000, Mr. Gossen said. That’s far less than the cost of paper brochures that he said could contain as many as 52 pages each. Printing about 9,500 copies of those brochures each year costs nearly $10,000.
A number of other factors played into the decision to develop a version of the site for cell phones Mr. Gossen said, including several studies that indicated that smartphones will account for 23 percent of all new handsets sold per year by 2013.
While Mr. Gossen said the university isn’t ready for reunions-weekend information to make a full leap to mobile yet, over the next few years it will gauge whether going paperless is possible. —Erica R. Hendry
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