Inventors of the “next Facebook”? UWM Media Students Create Innovation Apps

Students of the Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies Living Learning Community at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee tried their hand at app development.

The December assignment asked the students to develop a new innovative media or information sharing app. The next Facebook, if you will. Among the ideas were: Pocket Elf, the comprehensive wish list; Culture Hub, a cultivation of international news stories; Chaser, the college party finder; the Turn Up, a situation-based event finder; and News Donut, a broadcast news comparison app.

“We’re giving you a free focus group for your ideas,” Senior Lecturer Jessica McBride told the student teams as they presented their innovations to their classmates, who peppered them with tough questions. Taylor Pamperin and Jeff Loomis of the JAMS department were guest judges.

McBride said the innovation app contest is designed in part to excite students about media careers. “Students hear a lot of rhetoric about the media dying, but it’s an information age, and they can be the future innovators. They can help remake things from the ground up. It’s an exciting time to be in the media from that perspective.”

The JAMS’ Living Learning Community is in its second year and consists of freshmen interested in media careers. The students live together in the dorms. LLCs at UWM exist in various majors and programs and are designed to provide students with support networks to succeed on campus.

All teams involved in the JAMS innovation contest were encouraged to submit their ideas to the UWM Student Start Up Challenge in hopes of receiving funding to actually develop the app. Moreover, the group with the highest peer evaluation grade, maximum 25 points, are awarded with a specialized gift donated by McBride.  That turned out to be a trip to see a Milwaukee Bucks game, since the winning team was made up of aspiring sports journalists. The Start Up Challenge helps fund student entrepreneurial start up ideas.

Consisting of Hunter Vannieuwenhoven, Gabe Stoltz, Quin Voet and Paul Willems, the developers of Pocket Elf were victorious. The app focuses primarily on the holiday season, but can also be used and customized for other occasions such as birthdays.  Media Milwaukee is withholding more specific details about how each app works in order to prevent ideas from being taken.

Vannieuwenhoven said: “You can keep adding things to your (Pocket Elf).”

Coming in close second were the developers of Chaser:  Christina Luick, Jimmy Khun, Gina Huth, Zach Maynard and Joshua Dukes.

“You want to meet people. How? Facebook? That’s a thing of the past. It’s Chaser now,” Kuhn said.

“The college .edu email address stops most problems,” Maynard said.

Each app had elements that appealed to all of the college students in the room. Of course, they require some tweaking before being submitted to the Student Start Up Challenge.