The user experience in the big, ungated social networks is getting steadily worse: spam, bots, fake news. There are three main solutions: technology (i.e., anti-bot tools, but that’s an endless battle); gating; and/or curation/moderation. One result: I think we’ll see people spending more and more time in gated online communities. Particularly in a time of...
[Continue Reading]How to get world class experts to support your company
As the former CEO of a professional expert network, I’m a firm believer in the value of speedy access to relevant experts. I was excited to see that GLG (formerly Gerson Lehrman Group), the industry leader, is now offering a professional network service geared to the needs of the startup community: GLG Share. When you’re...
[Continue Reading]Investing in Stock Markets with Social Network Analysis
Federico Colecchia, a network researcher at ATALAB, wrote to the SOCNET mailing list: "I am looking for recent/ongoing research on application of social network analysis technologies to analysis of stock values." (He works as a researcher and R&D coordinator for development of visual intelligence software tools for multiple applications. His current focus is on drug...
[Continue Reading]Mapping the Culture of an Online Community
This paper from Patrick Lambe on “Mapping the Culture of an Online Community” is a great overview of the sort of characters that inhabit almost any online community (and many offline communities). When reading it, I suggest ask yourself: which character are you, and which character do you aspire to be? Via John Maloney on...
[Continue Reading]Sources of power in social networks
Traditionally, power in a company came from one’s title, or formal authority. But in a modern organization, power can come from many other sources. Harvard Business School Professor Linda Hill breaks down the sources of business power as follows (Linda Hill, Power Dynamics in Organizations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing, 1994), 6-10.). First, you...
[Continue Reading]On structural holes and closed networks
More thoughts from the research I’m doing for my book, The Virtual Handshake, on structural holes and closed networks:In some cases, you can benefit by being in a highly interconnected network, one in which there are virtually no structural holes . This is a “closed network”, “in which everyone is connected such that no one can...
[Continue Reading]On structural holes in your business relationships
I am in the final stages of writing a book on building quality business relationships online. Occasionally I will blog here some of my research and thoughts on this topic, drawing on my work for the book. I welcome your feedback on any of the material that I post. Some thoughts on structural holes in...
[Continue Reading]How Org Charts Lie
Rob Cross, whom I met at the KM Forum a few months ago, has just released (through Harvard Business School Press) his new book, “The Hidden Power of Social Networks” (coauthored with Andrew Parker). You can download from the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge Newsletter an excerpt on why social network analysis reveals How Org...
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