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Rachel Finley
574 TNRB
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801) 422-3598
prspecialist@byu.edu

New Students Starting at the Center

New Webmaster for Rollins Center Aims High

While many students work a campus job to pay the bills, this is not the case for the Rollins Center for eBusiness’ newest webmaster, Kirk Ouimet. He sees more in his position.

I want to put the center on the map,” Ouimet says. “Our school is rated high for things like accounting. It would be cool to get them on the map for e-business as well.”

Ouimet, an information systems student from Orem, has a passion for web design and e-business. As evidence of this, he operates a number of personal web sites that are currently generating income for him. This web experience will help him as he manages the center’s web site.

“The reason I got the job in the center is because I wanted to meet people in the field,” Ouimet says. “I think it’ll be a good chance to polish my skills. The whole concept of e-business excites me.”

He may polish his skills but some of his products are already soaring. Ouimet received an offer of $10,000 for Socwall.com, a site he built where people can add their own wallpaper and also rate others’ wallpaper. He turned the offer down and is still improving the site. The site also made news on a German TV station and has had up to four million page views per month.

Yougetsignal.com, another of Quimet’s sites, features internet tools that can locate networks, phone number origins, and networks on the same server. When the site hit the front page of Digg.com, Amazon.com called and offered Ouimet a job. Working on a small team in a little office didn’t suit him; he also wanted to finish school first, so he turned down Amazon’s offer.

Finishing school will take another two years, but Ouimet knows he can still learn a lot. He has a basic plan for his future and isn’t stressed out with career options like other students.

“What I want is to have enough passive income to cover all my expenses and allow me to do whatever I want,” he says. “When I’m settled enough I’d like to teach in the tech field, but that’s way down the road.”

New Editor Joins Rollins Center Team

For the last two months, Kedrik Hamblin has been interviewing and typing away as the new editor for the Rollins Center for eBusiness. He sees it as unique learning experience.

“Writing about anything gives you a better view of the world and what’s going on,” Hamblin says. “I’ve already been overwhelmed by the fast paced and high tech world of ebusiness.”

Hamblin, a communications major from Cedar City, Utah, started working for the center in May. He was the religion writer for The Daily Universe in Winter Semester 2008 and enjoyed meeting members of various world faiths and attending important events such as President Gordon B. Hinckley’s funeral.

Along with writing, Hamblin loves dabbling in theater, music, film, and other arts. His masterpiece is a monkey head sculpted from a fifty pound block of limestone that rests on a table in his apartment.

“I think the expression of ideas, whether sculpted, written, or otherwise is essential to society,” Hamblin says. “That’s why I write. I want to communicate and express things.”

The future is largely unknown for Hamblin, but he thinks being a journalist for a travel or culture magazine is at the top of his list of things to do. He said he feels that working at the Rollins Center will help him prepare for that.

“This will help my writing a lot. I do have big shoes to fill. Jared, the last editor, is a great writer. In fact, he’s in New York City right now working for PC Magazine. I hope I can do as good a job as he did.”