Building community – virtually
There’s an old argument that the internet is isolating people. However, if you ask anyone in the net generation, they wouldn’t know how to meet and keep their friends otherwise.
Take something as simple group email programs. About twenty of my college friends keep in touch this way, and we plan reunion trips every few years. There’s no way we’d keep in touch like this without the internet.
Then there’s services like Friendster, myspace and Meet Up that modern presidential campaigns swear by to build community, especially with Meet Up.
In the wake of September 11, companies began using video conferencing, finding that a video chat was tenfold more effective in relationship building over a phone call, and tenfold less expensive/resource intensive as flying.
Tomorrow: Applying a virtual network to the physical world.
About The Author
Neil,
In addition to the consumer oriented “social networking” web sites like Friendster, there’s also a complemetary group of online business networking sites. My favorites are as follows:
http://www.linked.com
http://www.ryze.com
http://www.ecademy.com
These business networking sites all offer free basic membership registration, and each has its own slightly different value proposition.
LinkedIn attracts primarily the silicon valley technology types; Ryze primarily attracts a younger general U.S. audience, and Ecademy is predominantly a U.K. based audience (although all three have significant international members).
Furthermore, social networks aren’t just being applied on the public internet, they can also be utilized for a “closed user group,” like an exclusive employee-only platform behind a corporate firewall.
For additional information about my research on global public business networking solutions visit http://geobridge.webhop.net
For more info about my research on private enterprise talent networking solutions visit http://geonetworker.webhop.net
David H. Deans
http://daviddeans.webhop.net