Loosely Connected to Who?

While this may come across as the plea of a social networking newbie, I don't think it is. It's a part of keeping a social network alive, a type of interaction, referring the new people to the other people to grow the network. This is also how to get those who are limited in networking ability to be a beneficial contributor of the network.

Efficiency is necessary for us to deal with hundreds of thousands within a community. The lack of efficiency breeds bureaucracy and a lack of social connections. So, if you know Bob and Jane are working on similar ideas and can help each other, tell them about each other. Not only does this improve your reputation over time, but it also strengthens the network. Yet, just working on similar projects is not the full scope of who should be introduced to who.

Stimulate Networking

Yes, this is what I'm trying to do right now. The idea is that the people you know may be able to connect you to people that can help you. So that improves your network, but it can also get others stared with their own networking. (Hint, hint.)

Each person has their own network, but not everybody knows how to actively network. Worse, it seems like the normal advice for it you find is to sink or swim. Somebody who is not talented at networking could be the talented individual you will need for your next project. Think about that a moment. If you don't help get the guys you need, who will?

Start Discussions

Blogs, e-mail, Twitter and other means of communicating can be used to generate interesting conversations between people. Poke the right people you know and amazing things could happen.

I like this idea because it gets the people who are constantly working on cool things into the conversations. While this may take some care in selecting people for the conversations, the results can be well worth the time.

Give Opportunities

Several classic phrases come to mind. The two big ones are, "talk is cheap", and, "prove it". Well, if the talented person doesn't have the opportunities, all they have are words. If you make sure there are opportunities, you are helping the talented to prove they have the talent you need.

A good example is Project Top Secret. I'm a designer in that project who has been a part of shaping several parts of the game. Before becoming a part of the project my entire experience in making games was a elementary school project and a college class on game design using Game Maker. In June '08 I was one of 22 people selected out of over 60,000 people as finalists for a paid game producer job. That was an opportunity. While they don't all need things like the paid job for a winner, the potential to be pulled for paid jobs verifies that the opportunity is serious. Contests related to your fields is a normal means, but many times it takes a team to stand out in a contest.

Design Solutions

Whether you are talking games, education, business or anything else with lots of people interacting, there needs to be a way to make the connections and communications understandable. We have a limited capacity to do that ourselves. Let the computer do the repetitive organizing tasks while we work on content. That's how blogs, forums, e-mail, Twitter and countless other communication solutions work.

While you don't need to create new solutions, they should be a part of your designs. Connecting the right people is a big part of making sure things run smoothly and the most and best gets done. Profiles can be a big part of this, as can just about anything that might bring people together.

Have fun, spread the word and tell me what you think,
Igen Oukan

Loosely Connected to Who?

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