As an engineering student in India, Srihari Yamanoor knew he wanted to get a graduate degree in the United States to expand the career opportunities available to him, especially in North America and Europe. Over the course of many months, Srihari struggled through the GRE test, graduate school applications, and the visa process. It all paid off – Srihari got into Stanford and earned two graduate degrees in engineering. But he realized that the process could have been much easier and less stressful if he had some advice and mentoring along the way.

So Srihari created the GRE-Success Yahoo! Group to help people who want to earn a graduate degree in North America and Europe. GRE-Success now has over 2,300 members and continues to grow quickly.

While the Yahoo! Group offered a forum for members to ask specific questions, it did not provide an overview of the entire process. So Srihari started a wiki and created pages covering such topics as the GRE structure, the Statement of Purpose on applications, and how to get a credit card. But having two different systems proved confusing and burdensome. Many users weren’t aware of the wiki and asked questions already answered there. Furthermore, Srihari had to maintain access controls in both places.

“I realized that the Yahoo! Group alone could not meet the needs of the group, but there was no way to migrate the group to another system without losing hundreds of members,” said Srihari. “Our Grouply website integrates the wiki and the Yahoo! Group in one place. Users can find everything they need, and I have only one set of access controls to manage. In addition, Grouply provides useful statistics that help me manage the group. For example, Grouply tells me which content is most widely read so I can focus on the areas of greatest interest to my members.”

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Group Spotlight.