College Bar Scene In the Press
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Publication Date: 06-30-2004
Summer Reporter
For anyone who has ever visited a college and not known which bar has the best dance floor or which bar has the best-priced scotch, there is help.
Collegebarscene.com, a new Web site, lists 850 college bars across the country (and seven from Canada), with ratings on important criteria such as the prices, the smokiness and the general level of attractiveness of the patrons.
The Web site is the brainchild of Brandon O’Brien, senior in the School of Technology. He said that one day last fall he was just driving around and the idea hit him: Wouldn’t it be nice to have a list of all the bars in the area?
And so he and his friend Eric Johney, a senior studying computer graphics technology at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, spent much of the fall and spring semester setting up the site, creating all the graphics and code.
"He told me about it last fall and I really liked the idea, so we pretty much spent the last six months coding the thing," said Johney, who met O’Brien in their freshman-year high-school Spanish class in Carmel, Ind. "We kind of had to learn a lot along the way."
The site is intended for people travelling to other schools or people just turning 21, said O’Brien.
He said it allows people to get knowledge from people with first-hand experience.
The site also has forums for members to debate serious bar issues, such as smoking or not smoking or Pabst versus Keystone.
Activated May 14, the site already has 95 members. Everyone who visits the site can rate bars, but only members can comment. Membership is free.
The site is still in its infancy and O’Brien said a newer version will be out in the fall.
Johney said, "It seems like every day we’re adding something else."
New features planned for the site include a section on responsible drinking, taxi services in the area of the bars listed on the site and pictures of the bars on the site.
With all the work, though, O’Brien has not been able to partake in the best part of running a site such as collegebarscene.com.
"I haven’t really had a lot of time to do some hands-on research," he said.
[Link to Original Article]
Students create Web site to judge bars nationwide
By Craig DavisonSummer Reporter
For anyone who has ever visited a college and not known which bar has the best dance floor or which bar has the best-priced scotch, there is help.
Collegebarscene.com, a new Web site, lists 850 college bars across the country (and seven from Canada), with ratings on important criteria such as the prices, the smokiness and the general level of attractiveness of the patrons.
The Web site is the brainchild of Brandon O’Brien, senior in the School of Technology. He said that one day last fall he was just driving around and the idea hit him: Wouldn’t it be nice to have a list of all the bars in the area?
And so he and his friend Eric Johney, a senior studying computer graphics technology at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, spent much of the fall and spring semester setting up the site, creating all the graphics and code.
"He told me about it last fall and I really liked the idea, so we pretty much spent the last six months coding the thing," said Johney, who met O’Brien in their freshman-year high-school Spanish class in Carmel, Ind. "We kind of had to learn a lot along the way."
The site is intended for people travelling to other schools or people just turning 21, said O’Brien.
He said it allows people to get knowledge from people with first-hand experience.
The site also has forums for members to debate serious bar issues, such as smoking or not smoking or Pabst versus Keystone.
Activated May 14, the site already has 95 members. Everyone who visits the site can rate bars, but only members can comment. Membership is free.
The site is still in its infancy and O’Brien said a newer version will be out in the fall.
Johney said, "It seems like every day we’re adding something else."
New features planned for the site include a section on responsible drinking, taxi services in the area of the bars listed on the site and pictures of the bars on the site.
With all the work, though, O’Brien has not been able to partake in the best part of running a site such as collegebarscene.com.
"I haven’t really had a lot of time to do some hands-on research," he said.
[Link to Original Article]
