Junior Daniel Roberts may have an online solution for students tired of the networking dictum, "It's not what you know; it's who you know."

To counter that impression, Roberts' start-up company Lanxer, LLC., launched SkillsTM, a Web site that connects people by professional skill rather than personal relationships, before Spring Break.

"It should be more important what skills you have than who you know," he said. "We want to change the paradigm, so people network by skill instead of who they know."

Unlike other career-oriented networking sites, SkillsTM is designed to be an open environment for users to create profiles that showcase their achievements, skills and goals, Roberts said.

Employers can post job opportunities on the site and will be immediately notified of the individuals who possess applicable skills. The site also automatically notifies members when opportunities arise.

"We want it to be the first place people look when they need someone to work for them," said Robert Lancer, a self-taught computer engineer and Lanxer's president and co-founder.

Lancer explained that users can search within certain parameters to find others in their community with specific skills-a feature that could be especially useful for student entrepreneurs.

"In a specific geographic area, if a student wants to put a team together, putting up flyers isn't an efficient way to do it," Roberts said. "Instead, you could go to SkillsTM and then limit the search to just Duke and find people interested in entrepreneurship. You can bring people together for various levels of projects and employment."

Students can also display their skills on their Facebook profiles with a SkillsTM application.

The advantages of SkillsTM over other networking sites come from new database technology developed by Lancer, said Roberts, who knew Lancer from high school.

"Our method of searching is unique," Roberts said. "It is only possible through our database technology. On Facebook, for instance, you can search for a keyword within a network, but you can't search on top of that."

He said the site could be used for a variety of needs other than jobs.

Roberts said he plans to build up Lanxer's user base, adding that he will promote the site at Duke and eventually offer it as an alternative to the eRecruiting site at the Career Center.

"Our biggest issue right now is getting people to see the advantage of our system over others because our technology is far superior," Roberts said.

Sophomore Kateri Zhu said she thinks many Duke students would be interested in joining a site like SkillsTM. Although she has not used it or other networking sites, she said she is familiar with Doostang and LinkedIn, which do not offer many connections for people outside of the business realm.

Eventually, Lancer said he hopes to sell his database technologies and compete with what he calls "outmoded," currently predominant systems developed by Microsoft, now used by most companies.