Don’t be a social reject

If you’re like most people, you’re probably pretty sick of hearing of “Web 2.0.” This latest online sound bite is something that a lot of people don’t really even understand. Plus, it doesn’t apply to any of us, right?

Web 2.0 isn’t really a thing, it’s more a description of the second generation of websites and web applications that have really changed how we use the Internet over the past few years. These include wikis (user-edited informational sites), blogs, social networking sites, and so forth.

One of the most interesting aspects to Web 2.0 is the social networking aspect. The most common sites you may hear about in this area are Myspace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. In general, you might think of Myspace as focusing on high school students and musicians, Facebook comprised of college students, and LinkedIn as a more professional version of a social networking site.

However, there has been an interesting turn of events lately. Facebook has been working to surpass LinkedIn as a legitimate business networking site. At two recent trade magazine conferences I attended, in New York and Johannesburg, South Africa, editors were abuzz over the possibilities of using Facebook and social networking sites in general.

H&P has set up a group page on Faceboook, and I encourage you to check it out and join. The page is viewable by anyone at: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid= 6055168302 So how do these sites work, and why should you bother? In general, you sign up for a free account with one of them, and include as much or as little information as you feel comfortable with. This can include a picture of yourself, other photos, your hometown, birthday, work experience, educational background, likes, dislikes, and so on, ad nauseam.

The next step is the critical one — you need to look for other friends or business associates who are also on that site. Most allow you to plug in email addresses or names to search, some even can search through your email contact list (if you’re okay with that).

With LinkedIn, the key is that as you build your professional network, you can see who your friends know and who they know (kind of like a six-degrees of separation thing). You can also post questions, which go out to everyone within two degrees of yourself, which may be thousands of people. Anyone who chooses to respond can, via a messaging system.

Facebook seems to allow a lot more flexibility, and the groups feature is more robust. Group members can post images, videos, links, and even participate in a discussion forum.

So, where will this go, specifically relating to H&P and fluid power? I don’t claim to know, but I do know that each year’s new class of engineers that graduates is totally comfortable with this medium, even if I am not. As a magazine, we should be open to providing you with content and networking opportunities where our readers would like.

If you’ve never even seen Facebook, the easy thing to do is to dismiss all of this as child’s play and a waste of time. The more difficult decision is to take some time and make sure you don’t fall behind in this area, because your younger colleagues and customers won’t.

Paul J. Heney
Senior Editor
pheney@penton.com