Any Notre Dame football fan knows the excitement and chaos of game day in South Bend. From tailgating to watching the band, from the end zone to the press box, it is impossible for one person to see it all — unless that person has a smart phone with access to the free LiveShare application by Cooliris.
Through a partnership between the Notre Dame Alumni Association and the computer software and online media company Cooliris, Notre Dame fans around the world can now experience game day in real time by uploading, sharing and viewing game day photos in an online gallery.
The project, spearheaded by senior AshmiPathela, enables fans without tickets to participate in the excitement by keeping a finger on the refresh key of their computer and watching updated shots of the game.
Photos of all game day activities are streamed online and are available through the mobile application or through the Alumni Association's Facebook page, Pathela said.
"The app is really awesome because game day is so busy and you want to be everywhere at once, so it gives you a chance to see what's going on all over," Pathela said. "It connects the students, alumni and fans at a higher level."
Pathela said that LiveShare gives fans a chance to be everywhere at once on campus.
"For example, Rudy was visiting and signing his book at the bookstore [during USC weekend], and so people got to see photos uploaded of him in the stream and could head to the bookstore if they wanted to see him in person," she said.
Notre Dame is the second university in the United States, after Stanford, to utilize LiveShare in this way, Pathela said.
"It's a good way to keep up our ranking as number one in social media usage," she said.
The app was launched during USC weekend and 230 photos were added to the stream on game day, Pathela said. Fans uploaded photos from high in the stands, showing the band formation, as well as shots from the student section and the field.
Statistics from the Alumni Association reveal that the number of weekly active users increased by 5,306, and post views during game week increased by 98 percent.
The application was initially publicized most strongly to alumni, but Pathela said there are plans to spread awareness to students.
"For the USC game we focused on publicizing to alumni mainly — especially those attending the game — to upload pictures if attending or view the photos if not," Pathela said. "In the future, we would like to extend more marketing to students."
In order to get the word out to alumni, the project relied on other forms of social media.
"We sent an email about it to all alumni ticket-holders for the game as well as an e-newsletter via ND Today," Pathela said. "We also posted about the app on the official Facebook pages of the Alumni Association and the University."
Notre Dame quarterback Dayne Crist also tweeted about the LiveShare app Oct. 21, spreading the information to his 12,000 Twitter followers.
The free application can be found by searching "LiveShare by Cooliris" in either the Apple or Android application markets.
