A new application launched on Facebook by a UF student aims to give residents more control in random roommate selection.
RoomBug, an application devised by graduate student Robert Castellucci, 23, works with Gainesville apartment complexes to allow residents to search Facebook profiles of other residents seeking roommates.
Random roommates are often matched based on compatible responses to questionnaires asking about living preferences. RoomBug has a similar questionnaire, but it allows residents to post the answers they want to see from potential roommates as well. It also allows residents to browse profiles for matches in similar interests, such as movies and books, and to see if they already have friends in common.
Users can also engage in regular Facebook interaction, such as wall posts and messages, to get to know potential roommates. Once users find a resident they like, they can submit a request to the resident and the complex through the application.
Currently, Collegiate Properties Inc., which manages Oakbrook Walk Apartments, is the only company that will feature RoomBug this fall.
Richard Ashbrook, director of operations, said the application is meant to accommodate residents.
"It's about moving into the age where students are using these types of formats anyway," Ashbrook said.
Scott Paterson, a UF advertising junior, was unhappy with the roommate randomly assigned to him last year and said that the questionnaire he filled out revealed living habits, but not personality. If RoomBug had been available, he said he would have used it to search profiles.
Karen Campbell, director of public relations and marketing at Melrose StudentSuites, said she did not think the complex would use RoomBug because few students ask for room transfers before move-in after they probe Facebook.
UF freshman Kelly Dees, who lives in a dorm with a randomly assigned roommate and plans to live on campus again next year, said she an application like RoomBug is necesary, especially on campus.
"The first thing I did when I got my random roommate was to look her up on Facebook," Dees said.
