Jenny Niesluchwski is a Senior at Cornell University majoring in Communications and Business. Jenny is also a GradeGuru Brand Manager at Cornell University and a contributing author to our blog.

I remember when I first heard about Napster. I was in middle school at the time, and my only source of income was a weekly $5 allowance, assuming I completed all my chores on time. The idea of being able to “share” and “borrow” music with people around the world seemed way too good to be true. As it turned out, it was in a way. Napster clearly hit a few walls, but they managed to pave the way for other companies to steer around the music industry’s copyright restrictions.

All these memories of sharing my N’Sync albums came flooding back when I first stumbled upon GradeGuru. Again, I said to myself, this seems way too good to be true. So I investigated. The principles are the same: file-sharing through one common source for the benefit of all users. But what makes GradeGuru so unique is that people are willing to post their own material; they are offering their work to help other students. And not just that, but contributors receive points toward cash rewards!

How did I not see this coming? A site for sharing notes now seems like a completely logical step in the progression of education and technology. (I mean, we all share notes anyway, why not make it as easy as possible?) We college students were born into this digital age and are constantly evolving with these new technologies. We are a generation that depends on instant communication and thrives on adapting to the latest PDA’s and laptops.

So we share music (legally), and we share our notes- what’s next? Will GradeGuru soon be featuring an audio/visual upload feature, so we can feel as though we are actually in the class? As for file-sharing in general, I can only imagine what the next big thing is going to be.

Disclaimer: This post does not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of GradeGuru or McGraw-Hill Higher Education. It is solely the opinion of the author.