Local man starts new social network

Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, social networks with millions of friends, followers and accounts have been around for several years. Now there is a new site on the net and it originated, was designed and started by a Nevada resident.

Travis Barker first got the idea for Postlogger.com several years ago. He spent three years in Sweden and was trying "to connect with home via the web" when he first thought of creating a new social network.

The "idea germinated for years" and in 2006 he registered the domain name. He didn't make any progress on the site so he had to re-register the domain in January of 2013 before he could actually begin the site. The site has been up and running for about three weeks.

Creating a social network would seem like hours and hours of writing code and trying to get it to work together. Fortunately, there is an easier way.

Barker said almost all of the stuff on his site comes from "open source software." Barker said the use of such software is "very common among web developers."

"It's a wonderful way to utilize software," he said.

What it allowed him and his partner, Josh Overton, to do is download "little chunks" of information and write code to bind them together so they work similarly to Legos. This system widely used by such entities as NASA, the Australian and Canadian governments and many universities.

Barker said the system has let him set up a site that has some great features. He said he has tried "to provide features that members want, especially Nevada users," he said. Without any advertising, his site has already garnered more than 70 users in the short time it has been up and running.

Barker said he wants to "provide services to the community -- to give people what they're looking for on the Internet." His site has several features and "it's all free," he said. Other features may cost in the future, but not now. There is some expense to beginning a site like this and Barker said he hopes to realize an income stream eventually, but for now, a couple of advertisers "pay for all but my time."

Most of the features on his site can be found on similar sites, but Barker said unlike the others, his features are geared toward Nevada.

Barker said he has been happy with the site so far.

"There have been some issues." he said. "We face them as they come."

Barker wants to scale the site up in the future and he is very happy with the response so far.

"I am ecstatic," he said. "I have received a lot of positive feedback and constructive criticism."

Submitted content is monitored by several people, Barker said.

"We will not accept anything that's inappropriate," he said.

He believes anyone who logs onto the site will be impressed.

"We are a small town site," he said, "but we have some big features."

To learn more about this new social network site, go to www.postlogger.com