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Onedegree.Com Launches for University of Southern California Students and Alumni

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 September 2008, 12:00 CDT

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- onedegree.com, a new university- centric social and professional networking site that is exclusive by school has just launched for University of Southern California students, alumni and fans. The site is built to function as both a business and social networking hub where students and alumni are able to post and search for jobs, network and reconnect with people from their university. USC is the first school onedegree has partnered with and there are plans to partner with additional schools and expand nationally.

The specific functionality of onedegree.com was developed by taking the best networking websites and improving upon them. onedegree is filling a void in the online networking world for those who want the ability to manage their professional and social lives in one place. With onedegree, members are able to choose to fill out a professional profile, a social profile, or both.

"The problem with many networking sites these days is not a lack of connections, but too many connections of dubious value. The key advantage onedegree offers is the ability to seamlessly manage distinct professional and social profiles giving access to other members as desired. Most sites don't allow the privacy of keeping work and social lives separate; with onedegree, you can," said Kevin Knaul, Chief Executive Officer of onedegree.

Because the site will have different communities for each university and each is university exclusive, users will have the ability to find and post jobs targeting fellow students and alumni. They will also be able to set up groups to make connections around social interests including sports, fraternity and sorority life and other university activities. The site will also display rich content about the university and its sports and arts programs.

"We studied the market and through extensive research, found a large void in the seemingly saturated social networking category. Networking circles can be too large to be useful, and users feel obligated to accept peripheral contacts. onedegree offers an alumni network which is exclusive and generates a built-in level of trust. There's no good way to maintain an exclusive network using existing tools," said Kevin Knaul.

onedegree also offers a rewards program designed to give members the opportunity to earn points for interacting with the onedegree website. The points program is intended to be a fun, entertaining way to compete with your friends while earning chances to participate in exclusive sweepstakes, earn free gifts and accumulate points that can be used in the onedegree store.

onedegree launched on August 28th and will kick-off the launch by hosting a tailgate bash before the USC vs. Ohio State football game on September 13th. There will be free food, beer and a chance to win prizes that include tickets to the USC vs. Oregon football game on October 4th, a Pete Carroll autographed football, a Matt Leinart autographed jersey and a $250 gift certificate for USC merchandise. All onedegree members with an active profile are invited to attend the event.

Media Contact: Tracy Mallozzi Danielle Rausch Tracy@therosegrp.com DanielleR@therosegrp.com 310-280-3710 310-280-3710 About onedegree

onedegree.com is a university-centric social networking site that is community exclusive by school. onedegree is built to function as both a business and social networking hub where students and alumni are able to post and search for jobs, network and reconnect with people from their university. onedegree currently has a partnership with University of Southern California and has plans to partner with additional schools nationally. onedegree is headquartered in Chicago.

onedegree.com

CONTACT: Tracy Mallozzi, Tracy@therosegrp.com, or Danielle Rausch,DanielleR@therosegrp.com, both of The Rose Group, +1-310-280-3710, foronedegree.com

Web site: http://www.onedegree.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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