The following is a shout-out to all of my peeps in the business of online community management / outreach, many of whom have expressed, in one form or another, a moderate sense of terror regarding job stability in the present financial crisis. Considering I am not an economist, and that I have a mere bachelors degree in political science and philosophy from a state university, one might want to take the following with a grain of salt but... I do have a bit of hope regarding the opportunities provided by this somewhat grim economic environment.

Google has apparently applied for a series of patents that will enable it to a put a value on how connected you are, within your social network. Akin to the "pagerank" system used by the search giant for valuing the popularity of websites, "friendrank" would help identify individuals who are particularly influential within circles of friends.

You can download it here.

What do you think of his tips?  Would they help your nonprofit of NGO?  Would your staff be open to trying them?

Beth Kanter found these bloggers' reactions here, here, and here.  And here are some more from Getting Attention, FI Space, Adirondack Base Camp, SmArts & Culture, Acronym and Beth's Blog.

What do you think?