CollegeWikis.com - Wikis Go To College

CollegeWikis.com is a new site that aims to combine the school-specific social networking of Facebook with dynamic informational content about colleges, via the ever-popular wiki style. Each CollegeWiki captures intra-school content and communication, and through the wiki format, users are able to constantly update the page to keep it fresh and informative. There are links to current events, survey questions, a calendar, dorm and course email lists, a "Random Page," and more. Users can pose questions or share answers for others at their school. There is a school-wide message board called "iKnow, iShare," which is synched with each school’s wiki, and can be added as a widget on your MySpace or Facebook page. The site currently features over 60 U.S. colleges and universities, and plans to expand to over 1,000 schools in the near future. High schools, regions, and companies are in the site’s future plans – they openly acknowledge following the same trajectory as Facebook’s expansion over the last few years.

"We are a mix of the best things about Facebook (network-based relevance) and Google (information), and are incorporating the familiarity and goodwill that users have towards wikipedia with the content-creation power of ‘answers’ (which yahoo, LinkedIn, Amazon, eBay, AOL, etc are now doing), and infusing the virality of e-mail."

According to CollegeWikis.com, the sites unique visitors average 17 visits per month, ranking the site 5th highest for user loyalty amongst the major social networks. The site also claims to be doubling its unique visitors every six weeks. If the site is able to maintain this kind of growth while also expanding the number of schools offered and maintaining the same depth of content, it could be huge. It offers many of the intra-school social benefits of Facebook with more informational content.

While the wiki-style information seems like it could be really useful, how much are users really going to take advantage of the social aspects of CollegeWikis? Or will they just stick to existing social networks like Facebook and MySpace for those functions?