Wednesday 28 November 2007

The Social Network

Until now I've avoided the whole social network phenomena, although this is more to do with my laziness than any other reason. But I got pinged today with an invite to join linkedin.com, which is a kind of social network, but aimed at the professional/job hunting market. So I accepted the invitation and filled in all the various details.
Now the whole idea of these networks is to put you in touch with people of similar skills/interests or in touch with people who are in touch with people etc etc etc This got me thinking about how such a network might help chess.
Lots of chessplayers have a social network of other chessplayers. And some chessplayers have a network of people who aren't chessplayers. But often these networks are quite distinct (and are kept disticnt), meaning that chess doesn't draw on the resources that the non chess community might bring in. But via a mechanism like linkedin or facebook there might be an opportunity for these groups to come into contact with each other, to the benefit of both.
So what I am interested in doing is building up a network of chessplayers, both as a conduit for the sharing of chess related ideas (especially in the areas of tournament organisation and marketing), and as a way of increasing the visibility of the chess community through the professional world. To do this I invite you to have a look at www.linkedin.com/in/shaunpress and decide if it is a worthwhile endeavour. I will be interested in seeing what contacts the chess community actually has with the outside world, and what help that can bring to the game.

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