Social networking is becoming more important, both at the individual and institutional level. It conjures up images of classical networking and schmoozing, driven by individuals intent upon prying business cards out of others and relentlessly expanding their contact lists, manipulatively using their contacts to advance their own interests. Our focus on social networks has a very different emphasis. For many, this provokes a negative reaction. In fact we would argue that classical networking approaches tend to undermine rather than support the value of social networks.

In a past post I elaborated on social networks like Twitter as being a Help engine; an alternative to a search engine in some cases in finding answers and making decisions. by connecting you to a social network of people you trust who will be willing to help out in a reciprocal relationship (which which also helps out in the re-contextualising process as you share a common wavelength or level I also paralleled this concept to the aims of KM, productivity, performance, sense-making, decision-making, etc: “I think it’s getting us closer to the KM productivity (sense-making) aim that knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer has always aspired to, which is:

Robin asked me about the differences between communities and networks and this 3 minute recording captures my views. continue to be focused on the space between communities and networks, thinking that this is the sweet spot for so many things people are trying to do. Online Community Building Strategy: Nancy White On Networks, Groups and Technology Choices ...Tags: Last month in Rome Robin Good took me to a park, put me in a funny little bicycle car and we drove around the park recording our conversations. Nice job,

The Economist on social networking - world of connections This week,  The Economist, every Capatilist’s favourite magazine, has published a special report on on social networking . Introduction: A world of connections “Online social networks are changing the way people communicate, work and play” What joy. A World of Connections , provides an excellent overview of the current state of social media for those still trying to get to grips with it.

  Via Stephen Downe s, Judy Breck believes, and I agree, that the economic crunch will speed the advent of network learnin g. And crucially, we can now consider such possibilities because of the network. The network doesn’t just change the way we learn from a pedagogical or behavioral perspective - it also changes the economics of the production, distribution, and consumption of educational products and services. Getting a college education in the US is absurdly expensive, but like property, or the stock market, the education bubble too will burst - the financial institutions simply no longer have the money to fund the madness.

Tags: community networks theworldcafe collaboratio ODI paper that I quote all the time ...Tags:

A while back I blogged about the possibility of networks and blogospheres cutting into the need for communities. Just look at Friendfeed, it’s a network, but you can also join rooms (member groups); some are feedback rooms, news rooms, topic rooms…people still like hanging out in a place (pub/coffee shop) and contributing to the pool of info in one spot, rather than scattered in a social network. If I have a question about Friendfeed functionality I I believe this is happening a great deal, as now people may have a more purposeful or ideal way of achieving their needs

It is a corporate sponsored social network site that is voluntary, open-source, operates outside of the corporate firewall and is moderated by its users. One of the examples of internal communications programs I’ve cited in presentations and previous posts is the Best Buy Blue Shirt Nation - an internal social network for employees of the electronics super store. Since I’m not a Best Buy employee, I’ve never been given Two videos, very informative... Gary Koelling and Steve Bendt at BIF-4

New from HP's Social Computing Lab comes news of Friendlee, an entirely new kind of social network that focuses on the intimate connections between close friends, family, and colleagues. The application, designed to operate on your mobile phone, tracks your call and messaging history to provide an ambient awareness of who your "real" friends are and then adds those people to your social network. Not only that, but Friendlee also tracks the businesses you call frequently to identify your preferred services which can then be used as recommendations to your network of friends.

The main thing for me was to chat with Affiliate marketers about how social networks pass information around. You don’t need a big social network yourself. They are primarily one-to-many channel (blogger sets theme, tone and subject) and the social network sees the “finished product” - and can leave questions/comments/reviews. While you are reading the presentation outline below I’d like you to think about the Twitter change today. Today Twitter turned off “see replies to those I’m not following”.