Simplicity

Oh, so much mail here on Friendster the past two weeks.  Many more persons decided to join our knowledge workers network than I anticipated.  Most arrived through special invitation but now there is an additional stream, purely from longtime Friendsters, poking around, as they should, in the networks where we are increasingly invisible.  I will continue to send welcomes and reply to everyone, though the queue is such that I can’t answer almost immediately as when we first began this project.  So, patience, from me, and from the new members especially, is needed.  Those of you who qualify as ‘golden oldies’ though — stay in touch!  No need for any kind of mail moratorium.

It’s important that we grow our own networks in line with what we hope to accomplish here.  For some, that may mean a leisurely adding of new friends by exploring my own network and the networks of others in which I appear.  It’s a good sign that I now see many network members adding each other — especially the Indonesian members are very adept at this.  Myself — I’ve not yet had the good fortune to explore this road to growth, as I am focusing on building my network’s social infrastructure from external sources — like the indonesian-studies list membership — for all our mutual benefit.  And that is what I plan to continue doing for a good while longer.  It would also help us all if the few (umm) ‘holdouts’ upload at least one personal photo, include a few lines on personal interests, and even insert web addresses of any non-Friendster blogs, phlogs or personal websites into their Friendster profiles.  Better for friends to know these things.

As my network grows, and as I exchange Friendster emails and read members’ blogs, I notice an important pattern.  Knowledge workers fall into several often overlapping groups — knowledge producers (such as academics,  journalists, and public intellectuals), knowledge consumers (such as advanced students and activists), and knowledge seekers (sometimes not credentialed in any way but wanting to be in touch for various reasons with knowledge producers and consumers).  There are also (ahem) a few ‘collectors’ of our virtual bodies.

One thing I find myself doing increasingly is trying to get to know more about each network member (by reading Friendster profiles carefully, looking at posted photos, personal blogs and websites, and old-fashioned googling).  This has led to some wonderful conversations.  It also has made it easier for me to quickly add certain new members — mainly knowledge producers — to the Nice Friends list here in Simplicity blog.  It is consequently now faster for you all to find such persons in this regularly updated list rather than paging through the homepages of network members.  It’s worth clicking the links of Nice Friends when you have a few moments to email them, request to ‘add’ them, or ‘add’ them directly to you own networks.

Meanwhile, I see I’ll have to study all the Friendster FAQs (old and new) more carefully in order to make the best and fullest use of all that Friendster offers.  Those who sign in fairly often can see how quickly Friendster is adding new features to keep its existing users and attract new ones. One outcome of all this innovation is my current (welcomed) state of postal servitude.  Another is the slower than anticipated adding of features and entries to this blog, most of which so far is focused on growing this project in a smooth way.  Keep tuning in though — some surprises are coming.  Watch those sidebars!