Online social networking is the buzz word for today’s youth. The mantra is : create space and share experiences. And the tech savvy youngsters have plenty of options to choose from and work on.

Friends, communities, views, opinions, photographs, blogs... all the sites come with the same package. But it isn’t enough. There is always a space for more to join in. And that’s when minglebox.com stepped in to attempt something nobody had, not that they knew of at least! The site, designed specifically for college communities, is a way to encourage colleges across the country to communicate on a single platform.

“The idea was to go beyond the generic social networking and give students something more. A space where fun, utility and sharing resources would be possible,” says Kavitha Iyer, CEO, Minglebox Communications Pvt. Ltd.
All success stories have a humble beginning. Minglebox.com evolved when a brainwave to capture student talent in colleges during fests occurred. It was last April that they (Kavitha, along with two friends, all from IIT, Delhi) got their first footage for minglebox.com at an engineering college fest in the City. And soon, the idea caught up with students and the concept of recreating college life online was in.

“Talent is abundant among college students and it isn’t collected anywhere. Soon after the fest, it’s a memory. Recording those events and getting them to a platform where it can be shared with college communities across India was the motive. And it’s a great feeling that in less than a year, we have covered the top 20 fests across the length and breadth of the country,” shares Kavitha, who adds that National Law School, Christ College, Mount Carmel College, St Josephs’, Jyoti Nivas College are a few of the over 100 city colleges featured on the site.

Within the network, each college is given their space that allows them to upload videos, share information, views and opinions and create blogs. Soon after the idea was conceptualised, students themselves took on the job of keeping the community going. “The idea was to have student-owned online space and it is just that now. We find it a great way to further the cause of youth-oriented programmes and it has over the months become a default destination for college students,” says Kavitha.

But it isn’t all about fests and fun alone. The community enables cross-college communication in various areas of academics as well making it possible to gather first-hand information about courses and admissions too. “This works really well for students looking at enrolling into a specific college in another part of the country by engaging in conversation. They discuss course structures, career opportunities, interact with an alumni of that college... there’s plenty to do,” she adds.

Along with designing a website that can keep up with today’s youth, the key challenge for Kavitha and her co-creators was to address the safety aspect and ensure members can network with one another in a completely protected community. And for this they have a feature called ‘in-waiting’. Kavitha explains: “Every college website within the community will take in members only when they are certain of his or her identity. Someone keen on joining the college website has to be authenticated by an existing member along with being a student or an alumni of that particular college. And this authentication will be a result of a consensus by all members of that college to accept the potential member. Even access to content is very restricted, it’s only for members.”
With time, new features will be added, she says. “We hope to be able to work towards organising fests and managing events as well.”

For now, minglebox.com continues to recreate online, the larger-than-life experiences of the world of college.