I've been thinking a lot lately about the best way to go about networking groups of people who share common interests or experiences, whether it's conference attendees, trip alumni, organization members, or whomever. Which is why I showed up at this Online Social Networks panel. I was hoping for some new ideas on how to establish better online linkages and communication channels between the spokes and individuals of an organization.
So I asked the panelists how they'd advise or approach networking a group like Net2 participants. Dimitri responded by suggesting that my question was missing the point because we're already networked through existing social web tools like tagging which enable us to find any content related to Net2. And Ginger added that it's not about the tools, it's about the community.
But just because we have an advanced constellation of social software tools like Flickr, Technorati, and Delicious does not mean that we have effective ways to keep networks of humans connected.
There are ways to make online networks more similar to real-world social networks, but we're not doing it well enough today. Ami and I brainstormed a bit further on this after the session. For example, wouldn't it be great if everyone coming to Net2 added photos and personal interest tags to their profiles before arriving and then the website gave you a list of the top 10 people that you should meet based on your common interests.
Part of the problem is that these things aren't built into basic software installs or web packages, so we don't think of it. And it's a lot harder to think through the best way to network a specific community than, for example, to start a blog on blogger.com. It's not that these networking tools don't necessarily exist, it's that they're not easily accessible or customizable to social change networks.
I'm eager to think through a project plan around this with anyone who's interested.
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Comments
A piece *is* missing ...
Michael, I think a piece is missing. You are right. Dimitri and I have been struggling with some of these questions and we keep coming back to aggregation. Which you touched on in your post.
If only the Web site could give "you a list of the top 10 people" you should meet at the conference. Or the top blog posts from the previous day based on your past behavior and/or tags.
This kind of aggregation doesn't seem to exist. Our current sites/applications don't do this and I haven't found a site attempts to aggregate the Web/blogosphere in any significant way.
My limited understanding of structured blogging and microformats leads me to think that these approaches to content development could have significant impact on how people congregate online. If these approaches are widely employed by authors/publishers.
Tagging can help, as Tim mentioned in referring to Frappr, but that still requires effort on the reader's part.
Do you think that an aggregation tool that is as easy to use and as widely accepted as Google would help organize like-minded people?
Check out Frappr for pre-conference stuff.
Micheal,
I think that is what Netsquared tried to do with an application called frappr, see http://www.frappr.com/net2builders and http://www.netsquared.org/blog/britt-bravo/net2-frappr-map-for-conferenc..., but it doesn't seem to have gotten much takeup, perhaps because it was not heavily promoted and it was hard to find on the site.
Disclaimer: I have no connection to Frappr, other than I saw it demoed at MashupCamp and liked the idea.
RSS/tagging/blog/forum coach - can you help?
Hello y'all!
We are a non-profit maintaining an online tutoring website (non-profit), and netsquared has been a great resource for us. I read every bit about RSS and blogging and tagging - but then I started to set this up for my organization and the RSS seemed to pull up rather random content, missing more vital one, and I start to feel a bit overwhelmed to add the learning curve to my already curvy life.
Although I've studied the material provided here, what I would really like is to be able to hire someone who is 100% comfortable with these technologies to help me get accustomed to them. Like a "new media coach" ;-).
This should be just a few hours, and we can meet in the Bay Area or do this through remote desktop connection - whatever you prefer.
I'd much rather pay someone who has it all figured out instead of stumbling around hitting my head in an unfamiliar universe. Here are the things I'm looking to accomplish -
*** Set up an RSS reader to keep me updated on a range of keywords.
*** Incorporate a blog and a forum into my website (looking for advice, not necessarily the development), with live integration of the blog on the homepage.
*** Make sure my content is picked up by RSS readers.
*** Know what we should be doing in regards to tagging, and how to do it.
Please give me a call at 707.829.8104 or 707.508.9144 - thanks!
yay!
Well this is just the request of my dreams - I love helping nonprofits use RSS (and I just contacted Rose). If you are reading this at the conference, look for me at the Making it Happen session if learning about feed reading is of interest to you as well.