If you're interested in business networking, Ryze is worth checking out. A relative newcomer, it doesn't have the large networks or polished interface of LinkedIn. What it lacks there, though, it makes up for in terms of local presence. Ryze makes it easy to find and meet up with people in the same city, with RSVP-handling for events.

The basic account's pretty limited, though. You can't contact anyone beyond two degrees, which isn't really that bad because you can (and should!) develop links with people along the way. You can't create your own network, so no Orkut-like groups here. There seems to be a limit on how many times people can contact you. And just what does it mean to "see who wants to network with you"?

On the plus side, you can customize your profile page to an insane extent. That's cool. There's also more of a social aspect to it, with people indicating their interests, haves and wants.

Something to watch because of the meetups, but my primary network's still going to be <nop>LinkedIn.

Hmm. Looks like I should always schedule my talks in the afternoon. Having more energy really makes a difference! =) I had fun talking about social networking and social bookmarking.

Need to work on being more interactive. Also need to figure out how to get people to play along with this entire ask-them-to-stand-up-and-look-around thing. Still, much fun.

Have realized that being young makes it hard to establish rapport with audience. Contemplating focusing on writing instead until am sufficiently old enough for people to think it's not mainly a generation thing.

19" flatscreen monitor flanked by two 17" monitors. Yeah, he's got a _sweet_ configuration. (Imagine running Emacs on all of those screens! &lt;drool, drool&gt;)

Mario, 13373st g33k in Baguio, you've come a long way from freaking out about Linux. =) I'm proud of you.

Congratulations to the newly elected board for the Philippine Linux Users Group!

- Clair Ching - Dean Michael Berris - Dominique Cimafranca - Dong Calmada - Holden Hao - Ian Sison - JM Ibanez - Jerome Gotangco - Jijo Sevilla - Marvin Pascual - Paolo Falcone

Totally, totally awesome people. I'm sure PLUG will do well this year, too. =)

I love how nominations were done through a wiki and elections done through e-mail. I voted! =D

Looking forward to learning and sharing as much as I can from over here...

More news at http://linux.org.ph/articles/newboard05