Social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook have long been home to various communities of interest, from those following a particular band to gatherings of alumni from a school or university. In fact, they’d also be a great place for me to gather support in campaigning against my latest bug-bear; the pointless, confusing and time-wasting enforced teaching of illegible squiggly writing in UK primary schools… but maybe that’s a story for another day.

These sites also see more ’serious’ groups forming and Facebook, for example, is home to several Semantic Web-related groups of various sizes and levels of activity.

LinkedIn is a far more businesslike social network (no vampires there!) but, to me, it’s also far more useful. LinkedIn also allows groups and, following a flurry of chatter on Twitter and via LinkedIn’s own Q&A process this week, I created a group there for those interested in the Semantic Web; you even get a nice little Semantic Web logo in your profile!

“Many professionals advance their careers and business goals by counting on industry and professional groups, alumni organizations, industry conferences and corporate alumni groups to help them make vital new business contacts. LinkedIn Groups offers extra features to group-based organizations to help their members stay in touch with one another and discover powerful new business contacts within their groups and beyond. LinkedIn Groups allows event organizers and group organizations to extend their brand’s reach and strengthen the brand with existing users by providing additional value through LinkedIn’s features.”

So if you’re on LinkedIn, involved with the Semantic Web, and interested in visibly associating with similarly minded individuals that you may - or may not - already know, then come on in!

Technorati Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, SWEO, Semantic Web, Social Graph, Social Networking, Social Web, Talis, Twitter, W3C, Web 2.0, Web 3.0

Share This