STUDYABROAD.COM LAUNCHES WORLD'S FIRST ONLINE INTERACTIVE REALITY SHOW
CHESTER, PA, December 1, 2004 -
Combining television shows like MTV's The Real World and CBS's Amazing Race with the fast growing technology of Internet blogging, StudyAbroad.com has created BlogAbroad.com, a website where three college students studying abroad during the spring semester will keep an interactive journal of their adventures. They will be given different tasks to complete during the semester and will post comments, stories, pictures and videos available 24 hours a day. The audience can then respond with their own posts, allowing them to interact with the star and simultaneously experience the reality of studying abroad. BlogAbroad.com uses the blogging technology of service provider, MindSay.
"We have created something unique and captivating here," says Mark Shay, president and CEO of StudyAbroad.com. "BlogAbroad.com takes the reality show to the next level. Now, instead of just watching these people's lives, the audience can interact with them. They can feel like a part of the action. And in addition to being an innovation for the reality genre, it is also a great way to promote cultural understanding and studying abroad. BlogAbroad.com is a perfect blend of entertainment and education, and we are excited to be the first ones to bring it to the mainstream."
Blogging has been around for a few years, but is just now beginning to gain popularity among general consumers, as evidenced by a recent CNN story that Merriam-Webster lists the word blog as the number one researched word in 2004 and is adding it to their dictionary. Blogging is similar to a forum in that a person posts a comment and anyone can respond. But blogging has ballooned into much more than that as thousands of blogging communities have begun to pop up all over the world, incorporating instant messaging, email and video chats. Websites like www.MindSay.com act as a central location for these communities to come together, forming interactive towns where next-door neighbors can be oceans away from each other.
MindSay's VP of Product Strategy, Adam Ostrow, sees items like the CNN story as further validation of the market. "The media is now realizing that blogging has the potential to fundamentally change how people communicate," he said. "Distant friends and colleagues we once corresponded with only at reunions or through the occasional email can now be kept in constant contact through this new medium. BlogAbroad.com is the ideal application for showcasing this simple but immensely powerful technology."
StudyAbroad.com is now accepting written auditions at www.BlogAbroad.com.
StudyAbroad.com
StudyAbroad.com is the Internet's leading source of information on educational opportunities for students to study in other countries. It is a comprehensive directory of study abroad and intensive language programs organized by subject and destination. StudyAbroad.com also offers Destination Portal Pages, a handbook serving as a guide to traveling abroad, and financial aid information. StudyAbroad.com is a service of Educational Directories Unlimited, Inc. (EDU), a leading Internet company serving higher education. Based in suburban Philadelphia, EDU's steady growth since its inception in 1989 has led to its inclusion in the Philadelphia 100, Inc. Magazine/ICIC Inner City 100, and Inc. 500 lists of fast growing businesses.
MindSay Interactive, LLC
MindSay is a provider of interactive blogging services that enable users to stay better connected to friends and family, meet new people, and share information through its proprietary Internet publishing platform. Featuring the most user-friendly tools for maintaining weblogs while providing the best social experience, MindSay's mission is to lead the adoption of blogging as a mainstream communications tool.