April 7, 2011 at 12:17 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Social Networking Prowess
April 7, 2011 at 7:45 am
For decades in my career I belonged to various User Groups. Most of the time these were valuable gatherings, while in some limited cases they were a waste of time. But one thing you got from User Groups was face-to-face contact and with that, you would get an "impression" of a person as to whether they were a valuable resource/professional, and whether they were full of baloney.
Now we have "social networking". What an odd name! There is really nothing social about it and if you think about it, it's actually a lot more anti-social than social. People are no longer physical human beings, they are "tweets", or some electronic exchange, and you never get the feeling as to whether you can trust them or not, whether they are a professional or someone just masquerading as such.
I often ask of younger people; "Would you have your car repaired by someone you never met in person?". The answer is usually something like; 'No, are you crazy?'. When we have our cars or homes worked on, generally you want to meet the person and size them up, and if you're smart, you get references - but the human contact tells you a great deal.
But with social networking we don't really do this. That begs the question (in me at least) why do we think this is "forward progress"? Aren't we just alienating each other as we lose those important elements of human interaction?
When I assemble teams to take on projects, I always have team members (including contractors and consultants) gather before the project begins for a day long meeting and then lunch, and sometimes dinner. I want team cohesion borne from human contact - NOT percieved cohesion from electronic "social networking". That can come, and only be useful after human contact in my book.
Blind dates can be fun and productive, or they can be disasters. I prefer not running the risk.
April 7, 2011 at 8:28 am
blandry (4/7/2011)
For decades in my career I belonged to various User Groups. Most of the time these were valuable gatherings, while in some limited cases they were a waste of time. But one thing you got from User Groups was face-to-face contact and with that, you would get an "impression" of a person as to whether they were a valuable resource/professional, and whether they were full of baloney.Now we have "social networking". What an odd name! There is really nothing social about it and if you think about it, it's actually a lot more anti-social than social.
blandry makes a valid points. My take on this whole networking idea is: "Which do I do? Tweets? Facebook? LinkedIn?" I have a hard enough time deciding if I have time to go to the local IT Management gatherings or the SQL meetings up in Seattle at Microsoft. You can't be a wallflower, but you can't do it all either.
A typical issue in today's society - trying to figure out where to invest your time for the best return. I happen to prefer face to face gatherings. A good handshake, or a poor one, can tell me right off if the individual I am introducing myself to has confidence. The "look into their eyes" can also tell you something about a person. Can you get this information from a tweet, or from browsing someones Facebook page? I don't think so.
So, while tweets and Facebook may have their uses in personal arenas and for fast communications across huge distances, from a professional aspect, I'll stick with face to face.
April 7, 2011 at 8:43 am
I'd highly disagree. You're assuming that one or two interactions would build some confidence. If I corresponded with a mechanic for a year online, and he/she answered questions I had about my car, or wrote about fixing them, I would have some level of confidence that they would do a good job and I probably would give them a chance.
I have emailed, a posted in these forums (essentially social networking) with Jeff Moden for years. We built a friendship, and a bond, and I he would be someone I called if I needed to hire a T-SQL expert. I met him for the first time last year in person, and it was a joy, but it reinforced a bond made online.
April 7, 2011 at 9:00 am
I had to go back and reread the editorial, Steve, but I perceived from it that an individual does not have a "year or so tweeting, emailing back and forth" to develop a working relationship. The article noted that teams of employees were "swarming together" as teams for specific projects. You mean to tell me that everyone that came to the 'initial swarm' was accepted onto the team? I would think that the organizer of the "swarm" would be vetting who actually was invited or included in the final team to work on the project, based on "their" perceptions of who was qualified to contribute to the project.
You can't do that using information in a tweet or on Facebook. It takes a face to face interaction; the abilitiy to "read" a person and to discover if the information this individual is presenting is factual, or if they are 'blowing smoke' to impress. While tweeting may assist in finding someone to help or to consult with on a problem, using just social networking to build a team could be disasterous.
April 7, 2011 at 12:13 pm
You do pull together the teams quickly, but that doesn't mean you haven't built relationships with people over time. We know people across time, we built relationships across time. If I asked you who you might work with (or not work with) today in your company, I'm sure you have a list. However if you become more dispersed, stretching to more people outside of your little group, or even in other physical locations, having gotten to know more people with electronic means will be valuable.
That's what networking is, and social networking, perhaps misnamed, is getting to know/bond with people in a digital way.
Think it's not a part of the world, or dismiss it? Watch this from an Army general that has had to learn to do this: http://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal.html
April 7, 2011 at 1:03 pm
I know of several instances where a swarm was formed for a quick project and the people are geographically dispersed. They were brought together quick and will disband when done but they all had a common tie. There was a relationship between them over time prior to the quick assembly of the team.
Networking certainly can make projects succeed faster and help build these swarms. I would not be surprised to see this be mainstream in the near future.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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