Okay, so if you have not heard about LinkedIn yet, you're missing the boat. I know I am probably coming in on this WAY late, but it's great. Sam, hipped me to this site a few weeks back and I have been addicted since. I am trying to get everyone I can involved as many of you know how I get when I love something. I tend to feel that everyone else needs to love it just as much or more.
Anyway, the site is a people networking site (think “Six Degrees of Separation”) that brings people together through mutual friendships. The site is free as I believe it's in some sort of a beta stage. (I received an email the other day asking me how much I would be willing to spend to use it on a paying basis, so it's my only conclusion.) So far I have over 100 contacts throughout the network and it's growing daily. It's a real thrill to look through everyone's contact lists trying to think of what types of things you may be able to help each other out with.
Having said that, I've recently started to think about this type of a site in the same light as blogs. Both offer information at your finger tips, but require time and investment to understand the full potential and benefits. Being extremely short on time in this world of sleepless technology, I find myself having to make more time organization related decisions with each release of this type of technology. Do I subscribe to another blog, or work on growing my network. Should I comment on 5 more blogs, or should I send out 5 contact requests. etc.. etc.. As a developer, I find myself asking one question: “How can I be more productive as a user?” It's the age old question that all of us strive to solve everyday. Is it fundamentally flawed? Can we keep creating applications by attacking the chores that take the most time to complete? Won't we end up creating more work to fill in for the time we are saving?
It reminds me of a trip to the zoo recently. I was with my little cousin who is in love with frogs. We sat through a 20 minute video on frogs and it had a real impact on how I've thought about technology lately. It's funny the similarities between frogs and technology or evolution in general. Frogs start out as tad poles swimming through the water. Life is simple and they can get places fast. The entire subsystem moves at an alarming place below the water. Tad poles zip though the water with virtually no impedance. As the tad pole grows, it becomes bulkier and more sophisticated, loosing touch with the simpler aquatic life and becoming oriented with the land based environment and a slower systemic existence. I'm mixing words here, but the point is the tadpole is forced to grow up. Even though he is forced to leave a streamlined and simplistic environment, for a slow and methodical one, the new world gives the tadpole opportunities to do things he could not do in the water. My point being, sometimes you have to go backward to go forward in technology. What may seem like a hitch today, may become the catalyst tomorrow.