Princeton Portal Project to help students 'find' network resources

A quiet dormitory room in Brown Hall is now home to the Princeton Portal Project, a wide-ranging new resource for University students.

Designed and maintained by Matthew Stack '04 and a group of friends, this addition to the Princeton web provides a more powerful University directory; centralizes network file-sharing resources Sleep, Wake and Gank; and offers lists of activities, announcements and news.

"The Princeton Portal Project represents the suggestions and wishes of many friends and fellow students who have asked me over the past few years why something like this didn't already exist or how hard it would be to implement," Stack said. "I view it more as a proof of concept and as a service that can be truly useful to students on a daily basis."

Stack is an electrical engineering major, concentrating in computer architecture. He thought of creating a centralized student-oriented site last summer and subsequently spent several months researching the design and practicality of such an undertaking.

During Fall Break, Stack stayed on campus with several friends and created what has now become find.princeton.edu.

Since it began two weeks ago, "Find," as the portal has come to be known, has served more than 2,000 visitors.

The site is divided into five sections, each presenting a centralized version of previously separate student resources. Among the most popular of Find's current offerings is the activities page, which provides a comprehensive list of upcoming student group events.

Find came online approximately one month after students at the University of Pennsylvania launched a similar site — PennPortal — to fill the need for a centralized resource.

In publicizing the need for a site such as Find, Stack cites the need for an alternative to the official University site.

"It is my longterm goal that the Princeton Portal Project will come to represent Princeton undergraduate student life, i.e., not necessarily catered to faculty, prospective students, etc., like the current www.princeton.edu page," he said in an email.

While Find has received much praise from students, plans are in the works to add more functionality to the site and incorporate things that have yet to be offered by other University websites.

"I'm currently looking into the addition of several features, like an online facebook and a diversions section where you can go to jump to great ways to waste time on the Internet," Stack said.