I love the new takes on networking that the web makes possible.
My favourite discovery recently has to be ConnectViaBooks, which is a not-for-profit project run by Flemming Madsen and some of his book-loving buddies. By uploading your favourite booklists and a profile, the site can potentially put you in touch with people who share your reading interests.
I don’t know how many users ConnectViaBooks has to date, but I can see this (and for that matter other social networks that use similar mechanisms) working. The books you read say a lot about you and if you are looking for like-minded people this could be a useful approach.
It will be interesting to see how Flemming and his team develop the site; as well as participating in discussion forums, members can enter a virtual ‘lab’ which allows them to test features – right now, they are testing ‘SocialBooks’ which makes recommendations of new books you might like from people who share your reading tastes.
You can specify the circumstances under which people can make contact and it’s interesting to note two of the options are work-related; I’m intrigued to see how this might develop.
Another fun initiative is the London Weblog Directory, which is a directory of blogs written by people who live and/or work within the London transport system – you’ll find me at Lambeth North on the Bakerloo Line!
Unlike ConnectViaBooks, which will put you in touch with people who are essentially on the same wavelength as you, London Bloggers has the potential to introduce you to people who represent a wide range of views. Good news if you're in danger of Groupthink...
Sadly London Bloggers appear to suffer as much as I do from spam blogs (the latest tally at dompannell.com is 285…).
Posted by dompannell at November 19, 2005 1:36 PM | TrackBack