BY SHANNON GENTRY
These days, social life all but requires being an active member of an online social network site like Facebook. Some people fully embrace this while others avoid it for fear that the wrong people will have access to their personal information — and for good reason: people have lost everything from friends to jobs because they have shared too much online without thinking about who would see it. To compensate for this, some people constantly change their privacy settings, create separate profiles just for friends, or close accounts altogether.
Perhaps the problem isn’t social networking; perhaps the problem is the resources online users are clinging to. This is the premise behind Ayloo.net, a new social network site co-founded by SCAD graduate Mark Johnson.
“There’s this chasm for sharing content with people,” said Johnson. “You can use something like Facebook and share it with the planet, or use email to make sure you know who you’re sharing with. One side of this spectrum is way too open, the other way too closed. [Ayloo is] trying to live somewhere in the middle.”
Ayloo was founded by Johnson and two friends from high school. Its slogan is: “Connect differently with everyone you know.”
Probably the biggest difference between Ayloo and a site like Facebook is the amount of steps a user can take to secure privacy. While a site like Facebook makes sharing information with friends, family, classmates and co-workers easy, Ayloo lets users easily filter which categories can access what information. In addition, there are few frills with Ayloo; it’s designed for communicating with quick blurbs or longer messages, period. Users can still create interests groups, but there is no threat of voyeurism by a user who found one profile via another user’s. Only accepted members of a user’s group can see the information provided by that user.
“We want to give people control of their life online,” said Johnson. “We’re different than Facebook in our core values, and our ideology. [Facebook’s] position is for a more open social life, which is exactly what they are doing right now.” Meaning, a post from one friend on your wall can be seen by virtually anyone without the right privacy settings in place.
Johnson and his team say they are not really concerned with competing or being the next Facebook. They are simply creating an alternative for those looking for a simpler social networking site – away from things like App Requests and Recommended Friends that are not relevant to all users.
Last week, SCAD message services introduced students to Ayloo. Only those with SCAD email addresses, including alumni, can get an account without already knowing someone within the network.
Still in the launching stages, there are currently six staff members and about 250-300 Ayloo members. Ayloo hopes to expand through college networks like SCAD.
To learn more about Ayloo, its founders, and the future of this concept, see their presentation at the Student Center on May 9, 2011 at 7pm.
