There’s a new blog in the already crowded Toronto-blog scene, and it’s called blogUT. And while blogTO, Torontoist, Reading Toronto, Spacing Wire, and Metroblogging Toronto (to name a few) all cover the various ins and out of the city, blogUT has decided to focus on a small — albeit important — part of the city: the University of Toronto. I recently had the chance to ask blogUT founder (and electrical engineering masters student) JP a few questions about the new blog and the impact that he hopes it will make.

When and how did blogUT start?
I had the idea for it about a year ago, when I was still an undergrad student at U of T (I’m a grad student now). It felt like there was something lacking in my U of T experience. U of T’s a really big school, and what happens is everyone is tuned into their little sphere of activity: within their faculty or their residence. But there are so many great things going on at U of T at large. The idea of blogUT is that it’s a central, accessible, up-to-date hub of information about relevant U of T happenings. I talked to a few friends about the idea, and the general feedback was very positive.

So I put up the site in January of this year (had to learn how to work Wordpress over Christmas), and talked a few friends into contributing posts. It’s taken a year to put the idea into action, but I’m glad we’re here now! I was inspired by what blogTO and Torontoist did for my Toronto experience. I’m hoping to do the same for U of T.

In a seemingly crowded Toronto blog market how is blogUT unique, distinct and relevant?
blogTO and Torontoist are both great sites. I check them every day. blogUT is different in that it focuses specifically on student life at U of T. For example, we give coverage to on campus events, campus issues and campus groups. Of course, student life at U of T is very much tied in with life in Toronto. After all, we’re in the heart of the city. So there is some understandable overlap with blogTO and Torontoist. But I think that’s fine. If they post something we find intersting, we would just have a post and refer to them, like the Winterlicious post, instead of duplicating content.

What are your goals for blogUT?
Improving student experience at U of T by providing a central source of relevant information. I just want everyone to have more fun at U of T. There are a lot of great things going on here.

Other than simple site statistics, how will you measure your impact on the UofT community?
I think the best measure of impract so far has been the feedback: people telling me they like the site, that they find it useful. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. David Topping, the co-editor-in-chief of Torontoist and fellow U of T student, sent us an email as soon as we set the site up, and he was very encouraging. He’s the one who wrote an article about us on the Torontoist that got the word out. I had the chance to talk to U of T president David Naylor at a graduate student lunch event, and I was surprised he mentioned blogUT. He was also very encouraging.

Are you looking for people to help out, and what kind of people are you looking for? Where can people who want to get involved get more information?
We’d LOVE contributors. We’re hoping to get a good coverage of all of U of T, so we’re looking for people in all the disciplines and all the residences: people from all over U of T. It’s an informal, fun kind of publication, so we can write about whatever we want. If you’d like to write on blogUT, send us an email! If you don’t want to write, you can still send tips of upcoming events and news to us. That’ll be really helpful!

One more thing!
Just want to thank all the contributors at blogUT. We have a great team. In fact, since the site started, I’ve found out about things thanks to other people’s posts on blogUT.