My notes from last month's Greater IBM
networking party are in my backpack, just in case I find
the time to write a trip report. They get me thinking: how useful are
alumni networks, anyway? How can we use social networking to support people even when they leave an organization?
Pauline Ores pointed out that alumni need to find:
There's also a fourth need that I think alumni will definitely
appreciate: keeping in touch with people in the organizations they've
left behind, even when those people have moved on to other
organizations.
Hmm. Are any of these needs compelling enough for some people to
actively participate in a space, or can they be handled by basic
social networking without the additional structure of an IBM group?
What value can IBM bring? I'll split this up into several blog posts
and reassemble them into an article when we're done thinking out loud.
Here's one of them.
IBM hiring is a vote of confidence in the person. Experience at IBM
may be an asset that employers could look for. Would people explicitly
search for IBM alumni when looking for candidates to fill a position.
Does IBM want to encourage and support that?
We're looking at two use cases:
It's unlikely that business networking sites will ever support case
as such information is sensitive. Would you indicate on your
profile that you're looking for a different job? Probably not.
Case 2 can already be done with current business networking systems.
LinkedIn allows people to post job
advertisements to their personal network. People can see these job ads
when they log in. A group affiliation allows you to be part of a
larger network without having to make all the connections yourself,
which is useful.
If organization networks and other affiliations were automatically
considered part of your personal network, the volume of information
from IBM and all your other affiliations could be overwhelming.
Filtering will become essential as volume grows. A smart social
networking site would make it easy to filter displayed jobs by area of
interest.
Jobs advertised through second- orA third-degree personal networks
make sense because of referrals. Does it make sense to use second- or
third-degree affiliations in your network? I think that affiliations
might only be useful for the immediately-connected.
How would it work? If I want to advertise a position, it would be
useful to be able to either explicitly activate a network (such as my
Toastmasters network if I'm looking for people with good public
speaking skills) or advertise to all my networks. It wouldn't make
much sense for these jobs to be advertised to people without those
affiliations, though.
To support the search for candidates, business networking services
should make it easy to advertise jobs to selected networks of people.
Hmm…
Random Emacs symbol: sacha/bbdb-gnus-ping – Command: Add a ping for authors/recipients of this message.
You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.
]]>Travel. I found bus tickets for $100.
Sure, I have to leave at 6:00 AM and arrive at 2:00 PM, but I can deal
with that. I'll just have to take the night bus on Thursday, and…
errr… deal with New York at 5:00 on Monday. That's okay. I can hack
that. Simon suggested just going ahead and booking a flight, but the
backpacker in me resists the idea of spending nearly five times more
money than I have to, even if IBM might end up paying for it. When I'm
a high-powered executive, sure, they can fly me in. But if I can nap
and write on the bus, I might as well take the bus.
Okay. Ticket booked. Next.
Accommodations. Chaya's offered her couch. Yay! The party probably
won't run too late – the Greater IBM thing ends at 8:30, and there
might be a later event that ends at 10:00 or something like that. I
should give myself margin on the first day to account for travel
fatigue, etc. Still, I don't want to inconvenience Chaya, so I can
stay at a hostel (or with an IBMer?) for the first night and then stay
over for the weekend. *Somehow* or another, it'll all get sorted out
and I'll find myself back in NYC for the 6:00 AM bus trip back on
Monday.
Check.
Goals. What do I want to do in NY? Whom do I want to meet?
Greater IBM Initiative: My primary goal is to link up with the
Greater IBM Initiative folks. There's just something about meeting in
person. I'm so looking forward to swapping tips and ideas with them!
I'm going to do that entire dogear thingy there again. Oh, I
absolutely have to wear The Shirt.
Other IBMers: It would be totally awesome to have a blogger
meetup at IBM in New York. There is one, right?
Family friends: I wonder if Tita Inda would like to come over
and help us learn how to cook…
My friends: I've pinged Byron and Ernest. Who else might be in
the area?
Other people: Anyone here from New York, or know anyone I
should definitely meet while I'm there?
This probably won't be my only trip to New York, so I'm not too panicky about organizing a geek dinner or cramming my sched full of interesting things. I'll get around to watching a Broadway musical eventually, and someday I'll focus on tapping the New York tech scene. =) But yeah, it's all good.
Send me your number if you'll be somewhere near NY this weekend, or if you know of something interesting I should do!
You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.
]]>I *really* love this company, and I really love this universe!
You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.
]]>First, let's set that up as a deal I make with myself. After I finish
five articles about networking that I can post on the Greater IBM
blog, I'll give myself permission to go on this trip.
In the meantime, I need to plan ahead. How can I keep my costs down?
How can I raise money for this? (Hah. Maybe a donation jar at the event!) Ideas?
Let's make this happen!
You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.
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