JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- College kids, listen up. There's a new resource for you and it's only the click of a mouse away.
Openleaf.me is an online site similar to Facebook. But you can only log on if you have an active student email address.
It's designed to connect students with similar majors to further their learning.
Call him the Facebook founder's protege. Actually, there's two of them. Eric Nopanen and Brad Hamilton have designed the latest and greatest online social forum -- Open Leaf.
"We just wanted to create a resource that people can use and we're students so we said why not create a resource for students to use," Nopanen said.
It's not for sharing your personal life details or finding friends. This site has one specific purpose: connecting college students in a virtual setting to share notes, tools and learning tips from their classes.
"I'd like to see it synonymous with the academic community," Hamilton said. "I think that's what we're really going for. We don't want to apply to everyone everywhere because that's not what the site is for."
Open Leaf has been active since late August and already, it has 1,000 users. Most from UNF, but not all.
"Majority of our users are in Florida and the U.S. and then we have a few users, we got a handful of users in the UK and Australia and Canada as well," said Nopanen.
For these guys, seeing an idea become a tangible thing has been the most rewarding part. And they know from here it can only get bigger and better.
"It's an environment where people are actually gaining from using it and it's been cool to watch people actually appreciate and be able to get back what we put in," Hamilton said.
The guys tell Action News that teachers at UNF are also throwing their support behind Open Leaf. They say their educators are excited to see them succeeding before even graduating.
Right now they aren't making any money off the website. They say that isn't the goal. They don't allow advertising because they want to keep educating in the forefront.
