About Social Web

The Social Web is a site created to provide an easy way for people to find out what's happening in their community as well as promote their own events, and to meet other people with similar interests.

Things to Do

Want to know what's going on and don't have time to search through the papers or lots of web sites? The Social Web Things to Do section is all you need.

Having an event of your own? The Social Web currently averages 5,000 unique visitors a day and appears high on search engine results. You can promote your events for free, and events posted to the Social Web reach the people who are looking for things to do. It's a great place to advertise events of any size - from major concerts, to the meeting times of your group, to a party in your apartment, to a yard sale. Go for it. It's free, so you have nothing to lose.

Do you procrastinate? Simply fill out the add event form, and it will be instantly available to the groups you choose to post it to.

Do you plan ahead? Enter events as far away into the future as you want. Get people interested in your event years in advance if you really want... If the information changes, you can easily modify it at any time.

When you add an event to the Social Web, you also have the option to send it to other calendar maintainers and public relations people. That way, you only need to type the information once and can send it to everyone you want to get the word out about your event.

Places to Go

Looking for a new cafe to hang out at? Want to take a date to an expensive Italian restaurant? Wondering where to play some golf? Catch a movie? Apple picking? Want to know what real people think of a restaurant rather than a professional restaurant reviewer?

Then the Social Web's Places to Go section is for you. You can search for places that match what you're looking for and read how other Social Web members rated them. Once you've been there, rate them yourself to help other Social Web members determine the best place to go.

Make it your own. Is your favorite place not in the Social Web? Suggest it! Add as many as you wish.

People to Meet

Want to find a new friend, colleague, or date? The Social Web's People to Meet section allows you to do just that. Find other Social Web members based on their interests, and send them a message. Put in your interests so others can find you. There is also the matchmaker feature which allows single members to search for possible dates using more detailed criteria.

Calendar Hosting

If you find yourself entering events for your organization into the Social Web and you have a web site of your own where you post the information too, why do the work twice? Sign up for a Social Web powered calendar for your web site and you can enter your event information once and the calendar on your web site will never be out of date!

Behind the Scenes

The Social Web was written and is maintained by Troy Thompson. All of the text and graphics on these pages were created on Macintoshes, and are being served by a dual 2GHz PowerPC G5 running OS X, Apache, mySQL, and Lasso.

The Social Web is made available through the generosity of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which hosts this service on its network. WPI believes the Social Web provides a valuable service to the greater Worcester community by helping to connect colleges, universities, organizations and individuals in the region and by encouraging everyone to share in the area's wealth of cultural resources. As a university that strives to build strong bonds between its students, faculty, staff and alumni, and which encourages its students to appreciate how their work as scientists, engineers and managers will affect the world around them, WPI commends the Social Web for helping to build a stronger, better connected and more socially aware community.