We have actually used social network maps as 'road maps' to various knowledgable people in an organization. The maps were not done for meassurement but for findability.

Sure we can measure the maps and then improve them via network weaving, but the maps alone are great feeback and findability devices.

Valdis

The sense I get from SN Software is that it enables ongoing connections via technology. The original connection "map" could be created via an SNA, or it could be created by manually entering my contact list, or it could be created by continual analysis of electronic communications (i.e. Tacit Mail).

Are social networks for a one-man band, the self-employed, the consultant, the freelancer just an endless series of soliloquies? Of course not and this is not what you have said. In fact, networks are all the more important for the independents since they provide, inter alia, a sounding board, sources of work, and a sympathetic ear when needed.

There should be no separation between social networks within organisations and elsewhere since the lines between large corporations with their own staff and independent contractors are increasingly blurring. It's like the nonsense of talking about worklife balance. The implication in this phrase being that we are not alive when we are at work and that a life only begins when we leave it -- I suspect there may be more than a few people who would be sympathetic to this viewpoint!

If we value human interaction and believe it is central to competitive advantage and also happiness then relationships and how we start, develop and maintain them are of critical importance. If people are spending more and more time at work then it is inevitable that the workplace will become more than a source of interaction but a place where we make friends. if workplaces are only sources of work rather than friendship and we are spending more time there then there are clear and worrying implications. Then again, if most of our waking hours are spent at work and we make most of our friends there, how then do we manage friends if they are also our colleagues? This is another matter to add to the melting pot as the whole face of management changes/evolves into a more coaching/skill enhancing and mentoring/guiding role.