(2007-07-17) Pollard Community Vs Network

Dave Pollard on whether The Family, Network-s, Virtual Community all offer real Social Capital. We need to be careful of how much time and energy we invest in our "networks". Better, I think, to invest most of that time in communities we belong to, and in finding new people we want to live with and make a living with in authentic community, and nourishing those communities. Otherwise we can easily spread ourselves too thin. Networks are potential, communities are kinetic, real. They do things. And the implications off that for Knowledge Management and Enterprise Social Networking. We should recognize networks as the fragile, opportunistic creations they are. That means we should beware of mapping them, tapping them, or complicating them with over-engineered "social networking applications". All most people really need or want is one simple-to-maintain and powerful annotated contact list (Address Book).