By AMY POOLE
Three BYU students have taken the free student ads on the first floor of the Wilkinson Center to the World Wide Web.
“WilkBoard” is the name students have given to a hallway-long display of index cards located in the basement of the Wilkinson Center.
The WilkBoard has been around for years as a conglomeration of student ads ranging from selling a car to selling a wedding dress.
Now, students don’t have to stand in front of the ad board searching aimlessly for a ad; they can easily access the ads on the Electronic WilkBoard and achieve the same results.
Students can access the Web site from home or on campus computers in a faster and more organized way, said Jon Orton, 22, a junior from Tucson, Ariz., majoring in business management.
The Web site for the Electronic WilkBoard is at www.pageforest.com, a student-run site with links to local movie times, UTA bus schedules, mission pages and other Internet resources.
“The Electronic WilkBoard is a place where students can sell their cars, textbooks, wedding dresses, lawn mowers — anything imaginable,” said Reid Robison, 22, a junior from Toronto, majoring in business management, and the Web site designer for the Electronic WilkBoard.
Students can submit their ads over the Internet instead of making a trip to the Wilkinson Center. These ads are kept on-line for two weeks, whereas the ads on the WilkBoard are taken down every Saturday. After two weeks, students can resubmit their ads if they are not sold, Orton said.
One of the advantages of the Electronic WilkBoard is that students can’t remove ads like they can at the WilkBoard.
“Sellers can include their E-mail address for easy communication and include a digital picture if desired. These features have already attracted hundreds of curious visitors,” Orton said.
Submitting an ad on the Web only takes two minutes, and students don’t have to make several copies like they do for the WilkBoard.
The Electronic WilkBoard has been running since the beginning of September.
“In its first three weeks on-line, the Board had over 500 visits, despite the fact that we haven’t advertised it except to hang a few fliers in the basement of the Wilk,” Orton said.
Money to keep the Electronic WilkBoard running will come from banner ads and business advertising, Orton said.
“The Electronic WilkBoard will always be a free student service,” said Doug Perkes, 22, a junior from San Diego, majoring in information systems who designed the interface.
“Businesses will see this as an excellent opportunity to reach students, and their advertising money will keep the board running,” Perkes said.
The three BYU students have a Web site design business called Grafika Design Group. They bought space from a company and figured out how to design their own Web pages by reading books, HTML programs and Internet research and from people who have created their own businesses.
These students have designed the Web page for Bon Losee Jewelers and for BYU Jobs.com, which is a listing of off-campus jobs for students. The reason why these three students started a business was to apply what they learned in business management, Perkes said.
These entrepreneurs want to provide www.pageforest.com as a place for students to create their own Web pages. Three different categories for the Web pages are: family history, student and business.
Students will be able to build an on-line community by looking at each others’ Web sites and sharing information, Perkes said.
“The Internet is used more and more these days. Soon it will be essential to use the Internet for any valuable information. It will keep progressing,” Perkes said.
