Richard Giles

I’ve mentioned already in this weblog that I think it’s worthwhile using the Internet to network for business. I focused on weblogs, because it’s very simple to start, but it’s by no means the only way to build a network.

One reasons, among many, for socializing online, is it’s becoming more important to the latest generation entering the workforce. Soon, social networking online will be common place, and it will quickly migrate to business. In fact it’s already happening.

One amazing example of online socializing, is the popularity of MySpace.

Boing Boing pointed to a short, but informative paper by Danah Boyd, a PhD student at the School of Information (SIMS) at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies how youth develop a sense of individual and cultural identity in “public” online environments like LiveJournal, Xanga and MySpace. The paper, “Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace”, is a great read, and I’ve pulled out some interesting points.

Unlike adults, youth are not invested in email; their primary peer-to-peer communication occurs synchronously over IM. Their use of MySpace is complementing that practice.

Generation X and Baby Boomers are so enveloped in meeting face-to-face or picking up the phone, that we missing a whole new way to socially interact. Especially with Generation Y. Most organizations don’t know how to implement IM in the workplace because of security, or just plain lack of understanding. The office junior that just started work in your office is already using IM in work hours, even if you think they’re not.

For most teens, it is simply a part of everyday life – they are there because their friends are there and they are there to hang out with those friends.

It’s becoming so ubiquitous that teenagers are expected by their peers to be involved. If they’re not, they’re not keeping up socially. For something so common place, it’s obvious it’ll permeate the other parts of today’s culture.

In MySpace, comments are a form of cultural currency.

I love this statement, because it reminds me of Whuffie, a reputation-based currency in Cory Doctorow’s book, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. However, comments are one of the most powerful forms of communication online–keep that in mind when you start a weblog.

For many teens, hanging out has moved online.

A normal activity, one most adults would relate to the real world, has moved to a virtual space online. There is less and less distinction between the barrier between the two “worlds.”

Why should business care? Here are a few quick reasons:

I’m not suggesting that companies should set up a my space account, or that a weblog used as brochureware is the answer, but that if you’re not considering how you use the Internet as a new medium to connect with your customers, then you’re being left behind.