It’s not impossible to meet 26,000 people at once.

Vince Dasta, senior in liberal studies, is determined to prove this, and he’s created an online network to help ISU students expand their social circles.

“It’s for anyone who wants to keep in touch or make new friends,” said Dasta, founder of Bigcampus.net. “It’s really for absolutely anybody.”

Dasta said he got the idea from a popular online social networking service called Friendster.

“I liked the idea of [Friendster], but I thought I could work it into the college environment,” Dasta said.

Friendster’s membership surpassed 1 million last month. BigCampus.net has between 200 and 250 members, Dasta said.

“[Growth] was kind of slow the first week of school,” Dasta said. “But then it just took off.”

Upon registration, Bigcampus.net users can search for people who have similar interests or attend a certain university. Once users successfully invite someone to be their friend, they receive access to that user’s contacts as well.

Bigcampus.net debuted last semester, but most of the work done to retool it took place over the summer. Dasta said he did all of the work himself.

“From start to finish, I’ve put in 100 to 150 hours,” Dasta said. “It’s just me.”

There may be some uses for the site, students said.

“I can see it getting more popular on campus,” said Adam Hanson, senior in computer engineering.

Some individuals’ apprehension to join the service has stunted its growth, said Hanson, a Bigcampus.net user.”Actually, I think there are only nine people in my [friendship] network,” Hanson said.

Hanson wants to use the service to get the word out to others about house parties. He is “sick and tired” of relying on phone calls from friends of friends to find a party.”I’ll try to talk my friends in to using it as a party area,” Hanson said.

Bigcampus.net is similar to a bulletin board service on which site users post topics and other users reply. The difference between Bigcampus.net and a typical online bulletin board is the ability of users to view new topics. On Bigcampus.net, only those in friendship networks may view a post by someone of the network.

“Each person’s experience is a little different,” Dasta said.

Dasta has distributed fliers on campus to spread the word about the site. One of them alludes to “The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” a game developed by three college friends based on the theory that Bacon is the center of the entertainment universe. The theory says that Bacon is linked to any other celebrity by six social connections or fewer.

“The idea kind of intrigued me,” Dasta said. Dasta is unsure of the future of Bigcampus.net after he graduates from Iowa State.

“Right now, it’s under my desk at work,” Dasta said. “Once I leave, I won’t really have a use for it. I don’t want to just unplug it and leave.”