By: Angela Padgett
USC may have its very own Mark Zuckerberg in the making. One student's web service is exponentially growing in popularity and the creator says it is gaining the attention of multimillion-dollar investors.
Junior Alex Waelde started DrinkingTicket.com last year as an effort to help students with alcohol related citations.
The information on his site explains tickets and their consequences. Suggestions are also available on what to do to minimize the effects of a ticket on their future.
Waelde got the web site up and running with links to legislation and other legal resources. Then he started a Twitter account to give followers live, real time updates on where police were on streets during the day and in the Five Points area at night.
Word of USC's new resource for keeping up with cops got out, and it quickly gained a strong following. Waelde's company now covers other college campuses in the Carolinas. Clemson, College of Charleston, and NC State all have their ownDrinkingTicket Twitter accounts.
"We kind of took over Twitter and started these Twitter accounts that give you live real time updates of where the police are, we work off of user-generated content," Waelde says.
With over 7,000 followers that content isn't hard to get.
Warnings of police activity like "Cops in Dr. Rocco's"…."Cops in Pavs"…."Cop running radar on Bluff Rd." are constantly tweeted out by Waelde and his staff on the DrinkingTicket.com Twitter account.
Waelde says the staff only tweets reports if they receive several reports of the same thing, or if they confirm the information themselves through confidential informants.
Many students, both under and of legal drinking age, rely on DrinkingTicket's tweets to keep them out of trouble, especially when they go out with friends.
USC Junior Casey Crum says she constantly checks the Twitter feed when she is out on the town.
"I've actually gotten in trouble before and I'm kind of like on a thin line…and so it keeps me I guess safe from getting another drinking ticket," Crum says.
Students have reacted positively to DrinkingTicket, but police aren't so sure about Waelde's creation.
Columbia Police Deputy Chief Ruben Santiago says he's trying to keep a neutral view on the site and it's web services for now but he does have some concerns.
"If it's going to be an engine where you're trying to defeat the laws that are in place or trying to defeat the actions of law enforcement that are trying to keep other people safe then I think that's an injustice that's being done," Santiago says.
Waelde believes his company's tweets about police whereabouts are no different than someone warning a friend about a speed trap or and I.D. check.
"The only difference is I'm telling 7,000 people instead of telling my mom," Waelde says.
DrinkingTicket.com is now an incorporated LLC in South Carolina and Waelde says some major corporations are in talks to back the organization.
Waelde and his staff are also working with developers to build an application for smartphones that will allow users to keep up with DrinkingTicket's tweets as well as other features like an option to secure a safe ride home from a night out.
Waelde says he truly believes his simple idea is soon to be the top social network of nightlife.
USC Junior Alex Waelde discusses the recent popularity of his company, DrinkingTicket.com, and it's growth through Twitter. He says it will soon be the number one social network in nightlife.
