9 replies to this topic

[David Medeiros]

http://www.npr.org/t...oryId=122337059

Interesting NPR article on the rise of industry specific social networking sites replacing LinkedIn as a source for contacts and job hunting. This left me wondering what industry specific social networks are relevant to our work?

I use the GIS group on LinkedIn but find the level of discourse and experience to be low when compared to CartoTalk. Very IT and programming focused with little appreciation for Geography and Cartography as a whole.

[s hubbard]

http://www.npr.org/t...oryId=122337059

Interesting NPR article on the rise of industry specific social networking sites replacing LinkedIn as a source for contacts and job hunting. This left me wondering what industry specific social networks are relevant to our work?

I use the GIS group on LinkedIn but find the level of discourse and experience to be low when compared to CartoTalk. Very IT and programming focused with little appreciation for Geography and Cartography as a whole.

this site is about the only social networking site for mappers/cartogs i've seen.
never myspaced, twitters for idiots, and fb is about to be de-friended, it's so fake and worthless..
i will add that i tihnk it will be hard to move beyond a platform such as CartoTalk, because i have seen witnessed way too much EGO from cartogs on the web. all of us are learning, none perfect.

[Matthew Hampton]

I actually find value in Facebook, but it really depends on the user. I can see how someone can find it "fake and worthless." I really depends on who you friend and why.

I have found most cartographers on this forum to be exceedingly polite. I have seen some absolute Cartastophes posted here, and the responses from many state-of-the-profession cartographers have been very gentle-handed.

Even noobs rarely get flamed in this forum.

That said - I think the caliber of carto-criticism you can find here is literally world-class, which sometimes creates a little apprehension.

[Derek Tonn]

I have wanted to talk Nick into "re-doing" CartoTalk as a social network site for a couple years...but my time has been so scarce lately that I just don't know if I would have the time to build it. I've built two social networks for my disc golfing buddies here in Minnesota the past two years:

www.smdga.com
www.mfaonline.org

That's been a BIG hit with those folks! I've also built a private social network site for our mapformation team as well...although I could post "first one to read this can claim $10!" in the forums section and I might not hear from anybody for a couple weeks.

CartoTalk REALLY lends itself to a social network though. Everything we have now with CartoTalk.com, with the addition of live chat, sub-groups (with their own private forums and chat possibilities), and every member getting a "home page" that they can personalize with whatever look and whatever info they want to share about themselves. A lot of disc golfers I know now use their "home page" as THE page for friends and family to contact them! That's pretty cool.

Wind-bag alarm bells are ringing (don't want the mods to crack my skull, lol), so I'll wrap it up. CartoTalk as a social network will eventually happen...be it "CartoTalk," NACIS or ???

[DaveB]

The only thing I wonder about is some companies block social network sites from being accessed at work.
(haven't used any much myself)

[David Medeiros]

<H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I should say that I’m thinking more of the LinkedIn model not the Facebook mode. It’s the connections element that is interesting to me and more importantly being more visible to the various industries we may serve.</H1>

I’d actually hate to see CartoTalk become a Facebook style site… I think the current format works just fine for in-depth conversations about mapping.

[Tassie_Carto]

<H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I should say that I’m thinking more of the LinkedIn model not the Facebook mode. It’s the connections element that is interesting to me and more importantly being more visible to the various industries we may serve.</H1>

I’d actually hate to see CartoTalk become a Facebook style site… I think the current format works just fine for in-depth conversations about mapping.

That's right... we already have so many social network websites, I'd hate to lose the "ambience" of CartoTalk where I can expect nothing but sensible and substantial discussions

[Derek Tonn]

I should say that I’m thinking more of the LinkedIn model not the Facebook mode. It’s the connections element that is interesting to me and more importantly being more visible to the various industries we may serve.

I’d actually hate to see CartoTalk become a Facebook style site… I think the current format works just fine for in-depth conversations about mapping.

Yes, I would agree with the above statement as well. Facebook/MySpace is *NOT* what I would ever have in mind! Rather, something that gives every participant a personal "home page" that they can adorn in any fashion they see fit (map samples, anyone?), the ability to publicly or privately chat with other members, the ability to form smaller sub-groups to talk around other topics (either in public or away from prying eyes), and any number of other features. On top of the excellent forum resource we already have.

Not turning CartoTalk into a "dating site" or having a contest to see how many smilies one of us can put into a single posting! Rather, making it even easier to communicate and collaborate with one another than it already is.

[Gretchen Peterson]

I've gotten an enormous amount of value from twitter. My success may be due to a colleague initially pointing out about 10 highly prolific GIS twitter users to me, which in turn pointed me toward many more. Its like an ongoing water-cooler discussion concerning the latest and greatest in GIS.

The folks I follow have recently discussed such things as how Google may have obtained their new parcel information (not to mention I felt I was one of the first to know about it); whether or not GISP certification is worthwhile and why or why not; where the Haiti GIS crisis camps were being held and when (http://wiki.crisisco...2010_Earthquake); and open standards versus free standards. Of course this is mostly GIS related but there are several cartographers listening in and participating as well.

[David Medeiros]

I think it’s interesting how popular and absorbing Twitter has become; in spite of the fact it is in essence a step backwards in terms of real communication value. Twitter puts an artificial limit on the data density of your message. It’s the first major “advancement” in communication technology that actually reduces the density of information being transmitted, like going back to telegrams only you can send them to thousands of people at once.

Maybe I’m showing my age, or I’m just a big grump but I don’t see the value in it. As a communication medium you sacrifice depth for expediency. I think overly truncated forms of communicating come at the expense of some dimensionality you only get from actually spelling out your words and using real grammar.

Ok, back to my rocking chair