Online groups put the ‘Net in networking
September 18th, 2004An interesting article from the Arizona Republic about online social networks. Two points:
1) “The system’s reliance on trust-based relationships can break down if users invite people they barely know into the network…[s]ometimes I get invitations and it’s, ‘I don’t even know you,’ ” said Scott Larson, senior associate at Grayhawk Venture Partners, a Phoenix-based venture-capital fund.”
Trust is very important with social networking. If I refer a friend to another friend for work (consulting, speaking, presenting, etc), my reputation is on the line. If the person doesn’t come through or does a shoddy job, I may be looked upon as a failure and untrustworthy. I have rarely seen anything written about social networks in the library profession (something that I am attempting to change), but it is important if we are going to refer out work, which I do often on the job and in my consulting work, that we have trust the people that we refer.
Relating this to reference work, if I were to send a request into an “expert” researcher, I would hope that they would do as good a job as possible, as my trust in them is being tested. Companies that outsource reference work (LSSI, etc) should be builing the trust of not only the people that hired them (the library) but the community in which they serve.
2) I have to do more research into this, but I believe that the more distinct the network is, the better the network functions. For example, there is a new Christian online networking called Churchster (they call it an “outreach network”) which attempts to bring Christians together socially to help each other out. This is a distinct community, rather than the throw-everything-against-the-wall-and-hope-it sticks social networks. I believe that there is more positive outcomes with this narrowing of the community. Again, this is a hypothesis, and the answer will come about in my research.