Networking black belt
I gave my first steps in the martial art of networking by introducing myself to Facebook. Since nowadays everybody seems to have a profile in there I thought this is the best way of really understanding what is all this about networking, sharing and web2.0.
I am by no means a layman in the Internet subject but, because of lack of time, I never joined any networking communities with the intuit of networking, my first was with Hi5 and just because all my friends were sending me invitations all the time.
While I am still to see the full potential of Facebook and other networking sites, my first impression is that people are more interested in following a fashion than really sharing. As a designer I find the interface of Facebook to cluttered, ugly and unintuitive but a lot better than mySpace, that’s for sure.
The good thing about Facebook is it’s power to connect people otherwise completely strangers. Meeting new people with the same interests and often sharing the same job, country or pet, open infinite possibilities. A collaboration, a job or a professional relationship is much easier this way.
Also lots of not so interesting things can be found in this kind of sites. For example I learned that I’m not the only Portuguese in Finland and that there is a Finnish surfing group… yes waves in the Baltic how crazy is that?
Anyway this is the link to my profile in Facebook: http://profile.to/uxte/ if you happen to have an account or are eager to start collecting contacts just add me to your profile.
Here is a list of networking or sharing communities links for you to start your training.