Talon provides directory of student talent

By Tina Nazerian     4/10/13 7:00pm

 

Special skills are the focus of Talon, a new online talent directory for Rice students. 

Talon founder and lead developer Kevin Lin said Talon is a directory that allows students to provide their talents and interests in addition to their basic contact information. 

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Lin, a McMurtry College senior, said Talon goes beyond students working together on problem sets and homework and helps promote collaboration on projects that might not be related to their acad-emic studies. 

"It could be anything from forming a string quartet to building a catapult," Lin said. "There are a lot of amazing, talented people on campus, and often, you don't know what it is that people do." 

Co-founder and lead designer Melissa Teng said Talon's success is dependent on student interest. 

"The Rice Players tried to do something like this before, but they only got less than 50 people," Teng, a Martel College junior, said. "Anytime you start something at Rice, you have this air of apathy, so I was super surprised to see that many [people] signed up." 

As of Wednesday morning, there were 253 people registered on Talon, Lin said. Students can sign up for Talon with their Rice email address and connect with their Facebook account to use their existing profile picture and contact information, Lin said. 

Lin said Talon has not yet received funding and that everything is being run from his own servers. 

According to Lin, professor of electrical and computer engineering Devika Subramanian will be Talon's sponsor, and Director of Communications for the Brown School of Engineering Ann Lugg helped spread word about Talon using the engineering email list. 

Teng first spoke with Lin about making a talent directory last November and the project was announced at an Art Lab open house in March before the official launch April 1. 

As for current expansion plans, Lin said the plan for the future of Talon is to gain enough momentum to make Talon something every freshman can sign up for during Orientation Week next fall. 

Advertising has included a kick-starter video and college-tailored flyers, Lovett College sophomore Chase Stewart, who is in charge of marketing for Talon, said. 

"I think that Art Lab has always kind of taken an unconventional approach to marketing, and so far, that's given us wonderful returns on investment," Stewart said. 

Will Rice College sophomore Lynn Gai said she signed up for Talon out of curiosity. 

"To my knowledge, the concept of having a talent-finding directory specifically for Rice students is new," Gai said. 

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