A new iPhone application, which caters to UW System students, can help them find fun things to do on weekends and at night, one of the app’s creator said.

Luke Jenkins and Jackson Rohde of That’s Winning created the app, called Stream, and have been working on it for about a year, Jenkins said.

Stream currently supports UW-Eau Claire, -Madison, -Stout, -La Crosse and -Milwaukee.

Jenkins said the goal was to create an app that allows students to engage with each other and share what they find fun happening in
their town.

He said he and Rohde started looking at bar specials apps, but it felt like something was missing.

“They didn’t really have any input from the students who go out and do stuff,” he said. “We call (Stream) a microblogging forum area where students can upload the events they know about, places they like to go.”

Currently, the app has about 120 downloads, Jenkins said, but they haven’t really taken time to market it yet. He said they are instead letting it grow a bit by recruiting friends and friends of friends to help kickstart the content on the app.

Jenkins said they have been working with user feedback to develop the app, and the second version of Stream should be available in the App Store in about a week. They plan to continue expanding the app with user feedback.

“What we really want to do is tailor the app to what each campus is demanding because we really want to be an app that users really find value in,” Jenkins said.

Senior business economics and operations major Justin McDaniel said from his history with apps, they seem pretty pointless, just games on your phone. But he said the Stream app seems different.

“When it comes to events, I’m always looking for one spot that has everything I need,” he said. “This sounds like it could be beneficial.”

On Stream’s website, there is an option to request the app for different campuses. If there is enough demand from a particular campus, they’ll expand the app to connect there, Jenkins said.

But for now, Stream reaches the five UW System schools. Jenkins said they decided to start here because he and Rohde know people who go to all five campus, so they can easily keep in touch about local events and spread the word about the app.

Jordan Nordrum, a sophomore at Eau Claire, gets a lot of use out of apps on her iPad.

“I have all of my books that are online, I can save them onto my iPad on the iBook app,” she said. “That works really nicely.”

Nordrum, who lives in Bloomer and commutes to campus, said an app that would connect her to events in the Eau Claire community would be
helpful to her.

“I’d like to find things to do in my spare time because some days I don’t have to work,” she said. “And instead of going home, I’d like to have something to do instead of sitting in the library all the time.”

Jenkins said the main goal of Stream is to connect people who are newer to their college community to the town they live in. He said Rohde transferred from Iowa State to Madison and found it difficult to get involved in a new city right away.

“Right when you jump into a whole new setting, there’s kind of that curve period where you’re finding new friends, you’re working into a new network,” Jenkins said. “If we build that type of community on a really simplistic, easy to use platform, that you can download and immediately start seeing stuff that’s going on, we feel that will bring some very good value to a freshman or transfer (student) who’s trying to get into that new network slash new area … ”

Jenkins said right now, events include local sporting events, bar trivia nights, local costume contests now that Halloween is coming up, among many others.

He said the value of the app will come from the students who use it, and the goal is to have as many people as possible sharing events on Stream to get the best variety of weekend and nightlife events as possible.