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Communications Networking

Making the Most out of FOAF Networks? 45

Posted by Cliff from the digital-networking dept.
BFF? asks: "With the rising popularity of online FOAF (Friend of a Friend) networks such as Orkut, Friendster and Linked-In I was wondering if and how people are using these networks to help their career along. Are these social networks just for vanity's sake or are they actually useful when job-hunting?"
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Making the Most out of FOAF Networks? More

Making the Most out of FOAF Networks?

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  • FQ (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 24, 2005 @10:49AM (#12035253)
    First Question ... why is this categorized under "hardware"?

  • Huh? (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Keelor ( 95571 )
    Anyone confused as to what this has to do with hardware? I realize that the web sites in question are run on hardware, but that seems like a bit of a stretch...
    • Its a sub category of hardware called communications. Im pretty sure the phone could give that away. Why they link to hardware instead of keeping it at ask is beyond me.

  • old-fashioned way (Score:5, Informative)

    by theMerovingian ( 722983 ) on Thursday March 24, 2005 @11:12AM (#12035508) Journal

    Maybe I'm just an old-timer, but in my day we'd spooge free trips to conferences from employers, and talk to other people while there.

    You get double networking points if you have a booth with some interesting content and some free "gimme" crap... and triple points if you teach a seminar or give a lecture.

    Another good thing to do is teach a community college class in your area of expertise... It's a good way to meet people who are in a similar profession or who will one day be there.

    Also, go to every professional association meeting for one or two organizations. It's always the same people at all that crap (at least in my industry), so if you want to be identified as a "player", it's helpful to at least make an appearance at that stuff.

    Possibly check out the alumni thing for your department at university (if your work is relevant to your degree)... This is a good way to meet older people in the same line of work, many of whom are quite supportive of young folks.

    I'm work at a consulting shop, so this might only be applicable to some... but get as much face time with the clients as possbile, and be sure that they know you are the one to call when something needs to get done. Establish a pattern that if they have a problem, they call you, and the problem goes away. You would be amazed how easy it is to build a good reputation just by answering phone calls or email, and sending a prompt reply.

    Failing all else, I'd probably try to use an internet medium to network. I was a member of allexperts.com in my specific area of technical expertise for about a year. In that year, I probably got 10 offtopic questions, and about 30 requests from college kids to help with their homework.

    I've not tried any other internet things, but my supposition is that the "audience" for your profile is too generalized. You need to get your mug in front of potential employers, and that doesn't sound like a time-effective solution. Go for it if you enjoy doodling around on the internet, but I wouldn't have any great expectation of success.

    • Maybe I'm just an old-timer, but in my day we'd spooge free trips to conferences from employers, and talk to other people while there.

      Yeah, you're from the old-school when employers valued people enough to provide training. Go to a conference? Hell, I feel fortunate they let me out of my cube long enough to use the bathroom.

      Now where is that red Swingline stapler, anyway?

      • While working at a few companies, I noticed a similar rule between the two. Both only wanted each employee to only take 10 minutes for "bathroom" breaks a day. Sorry, but between, logging off, walking and coming back, thats almost one break - if your REALLY fast...

        But yea, I've never been offered a conference. Businesses now days are more worried about profit than employee value. The company I currently work for has told people that if they don't like their job, quit and someone else will gladly step into
      • SFJOE, we need to store some boxes here, you don't mind do you. yeeeah, mmka. Oh, that Swingline stapler, I been looking for that. You don't mind if I just take that do you?

    • I'm work at a consulting shop, so this might only be applicable to some... but get as much face time with the clients as possbile, and be sure that they know you are the one to call when something needs to get done

      It's quite applicable at most places. I have zero contact with our product's end users, but I have a lot of contact with the internal users: training, service, etc. Making sure they know I'm the guy who can answer all their questions, or at least find the answer if I don't know it right away ma

  • Every job I've ever had... (Score:5, Informative)

    by marcus ( 1916 ) on Thursday March 24, 2005 @11:33AM (#12035712) Journal
    ...From washing airplanes as a teenager to my present contract 30 years later has come from networking.

    I've gotten interviews and offers by looking in ad pages, but the best offers have always come from people that knew me.

    People you know that find out about job openings will tell you about them before ads are placed. It helps to get your foot in the door early in the hiring process. While sifting through hundreds of qualified resumes, when someone recognizes your name, you are automatically moved to the top of the stack, or onto the shortlist. This is exactly how I got my present contract.

  • Sounds like the old boys (Score:3, Informative)

    by FidelCatsro ( 861135 ) <fidelcatsro&gmail,com> on Thursday March 24, 2005 @11:35AM (#12035739) Journal
    The old Boys network , all be it in a diffrent form for some new boys and girls .
    Its the same type of social orgranisation for a digital age , It has worked well for hundreds of years and i shouldnt see why it wont work now though i wouldnt like to pay for it , if your in the IT industry making freinds on sites like this could help , it never hurts to make freinds at work
  • Is Friendster making phones now? The only reason I ask is that I'm puzzled how this article could have be categorized under Hardware. I know the Slashdot category taxonomy calls for this but communications is a universe of concepts beyond merely hardware.

  • Keeping in Touch (Score:4, Interesting)

    by richie2000 ( 159732 ) <rickard.olsson@gmail.com> on Thursday March 24, 2005 @12:05PM (#12036067) Homepage Journal
    I haven't used any of the specifically mentioned services much, but generally speaking, the Intarnets have been good for keeping in touch with old colleagues and bosses. In fact, just a few days ago I came across an old invitation to LinkedIn from an old boss while I was looking through 30k+ of spam that had accumulated in an old abandoned e-mail account. Turns out around 15 of my old co-workers and bosses were on LinkedIn already so we'll see if it turns into a great reunion party or something. :-)

  • Don't waste your time (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Bastian ( 66383 ) on Thursday March 24, 2005 @12:27PM (#12036262)
    My experience with Friendster is that 95% of the people on there use it as a time-waster, and the other 5% are looking for dates.

    For example, my friends list is dominated by stuff such as Old Crow whiskey, a bar, and a giant neon Citgo sign in Boston. I also have people I already know on my list, but I haven't even tried to meet people or network on Friendster, and, unless everyone I know on Friendster is different from everyone else on Friendster, nobody else is trying to, either.
    • I signed up for TheFaceBook and was friended by a person I had never met after SEVEN MINUTES.

      That being said, I have never met more blonde sorority sisters anywhere. And they ALL ARE FRIGGIN' CLUELESS! If the college /. crowd ever had a chance at bedding the Alpha Cheerleader-types that rejected us in high school, TheFaceBook is the enabler.

      Be forewarned though, it's more addictive than smack, crack and cigarettes combined.

    • Re:Don't waste your time (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Shag ( 3737 ) *
      I agree that one shouldn't waste one's time.

      But I wonder what Bastian thought s/he was doing by "befriending" whiskey, a bar, and a giant Citgo sign, if not wasting time?

      I'm one of those people who won't be friends with someone unless I'm actually friends with them. Nor will I be friends with places, things, intangibles, etc. The concept of social networking, in and of itself, wasn't a bad thing, but the various "fakesters" et cetera basically trashed any chance of it actually being useful.

      My favori

  • FOAF? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by GeorgeH ( 5469 ) on Thursday March 24, 2005 @12:36PM (#12036346) Homepage Journal
    I don't get the link to FOAF [xmlns.com]. All the companies mentioned are jealously keeping people locked in, FOAF is an open standard and lets people network across pretty much anything. FOAF is the antithesis of the social networking sites linked.
  • My girlfriend and I have replaced the Clemson phone directory for thefacebook.com where all the pertinent information is stored anyone. It's basically the college version of the ones mentioned in the article.
    • As one's age moves past 22-23, the number of people one knows on it tends to drop precipitously, since it requires a .edu address (at a supported school, no less) and people tend to lose those over time.

  • FOAF networks? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Wolfger ( 96957 ) on Thursday March 24, 2005 @12:56PM (#12036547)
    Sorry. I'm only familiar with FOAD networks...
    • " Sorry. I'm only familiar with FOAD networks..."

      Friend Of A Drunk?

      • That too! For the uninitiated, FOAD stands for F*** Off And Die, and usually refers to the rejection letters college students get when applying for jobs. The ones that say "Dear Sir, We appreciate your interest in our company, but...".
  • I didn't know that fad even existed still. I thought most of the heavy users would have moved to blogs already, for the more pleasurable back-patting circle.

    I haven't even logged into my Orkut account for months, basically it was incredibly slow, no one posted in any of the group forums, and the place was dominated by Brazilians who kept ignoring the "English only" groups. It not that anyone is racist, it's just nice to freaking understand 90% of you group's traffic.

    • Orkut (Score:2)

      by Shag ( 3737 ) *
      Orkut, gah. I used to run a bunch of communities there, but I've been handing them off to others, since the system just doesn't like me. I'm down to two left, but one of those has over 11,000 members and was in the first thousand communities created on Orkut, so finding someone to take over it is a little harder.

      After I hand each one off, I remain a member for a little while, then silently drop it. It's just not worth the stress to deal with bugs they haven't fixed in over a year.

  • *Sigh* (Score:1, Troll)

    by samael ( 12612 )
    Are these social networks just for vanity's sake or are they actually useful when job-hunting?

    Because vanity and work are the only two reasons for anything? Sometimes I really worry about Americans.

  • False dichotomy much? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Elwood P Dowd ( 16933 ) <judgmentalist@gmail.com> on Thursday March 24, 2005 @02:34PM (#12037592) Journal
    Are these social networks just for vanity's sake or are they actually useful when job-hunting?
    They are for getting laid not getting jobs, you moron.
  • I was wondering why there weren't more comments on this article ... then I realized ... Friend of a Friend ... and this is /.
  • I can't speak to Friendster or any of the others, but I gravitated to LinkedIn pretty early on because it seemed fairly business oriented. And it's paid off

    I think a lot of negative FOAF experiences come from the fact that people use them like a digital yearbook/mash book -- "Oh, I'm on such-and-such a network. Join, and we can connect!" Do that, and you end up with a pretty isolated network that's not much different from the circle of colleagues and friends you have now.

    When I joined, I made an effort to f

  • duh obvious.. (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The largest foaf network in the world is warez scene. You know a guy who knows a guy etc.. and next thing you know, you have global network of interest groups who share their works.

  • myspace music (Score:3, Informative)

    by blackmonday ( 607916 ) on Thursday March 24, 2005 @06:26PM (#12040319) Homepage
    My band uses MySpace.com [myspace.com] to attract new listeners, and it's been the best. They should charge bands for this kind of exposure. Lots of new people at shows. When we post a show bulletin, people propagee the notices through the network, its a huge thing. Social networks are crazy good for bands. Oh, and there's lots of hot chicks too. Just beware the chicks who only take pictures from one particular angle. They're the fat ones. (they need love too).

  • Ryze [ryze.com] is supposed to be a business networking community based on the FOAF concept. I've had limited success promoting my digital photograpy forums [shuttertalk.com] there.

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