The Introduction

The first assignment in most courses is usually daunting and of unfamiliar territory. Interestingly enough, this class seems to take a different approach and coincides with the current technologies. Though I personally have never written a blog, I have read a few of my friends'. I am interested to learn such along with other social networking tools, so here goes.

I have read two articles tonight. The first is called, "FIRST HAND: Connecting to Collaborate: An Interview With Rob Cross." Essentially Rob cross explains how things really get done in corporations today. Though in the past we have used organizational charts and diagrams that appeared to depict the organizational flow, however, things aren't always as they seem. Rob claims that there "informal counterparts to organizationals charts." One thing that surprised me was how effective instant messaging can be for organizations. I used to think that was purely a social software that only teenagers and young adults used to keep in touch with one another. Additionally, I wished Cross would've been more specific about the survey he used. What sort of questions are asked and is it the same for each company?

The second article is called, "Saguaro about Social Capital." Although the article was short, it introduced a new phrase to my vocabulary list. Social capital is defined as, "the collective value of all "social networks" [who people know] and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other ["norms of reciprocity"]." The term networking to me means, who you know. Growing up, I constantly heard the line, "it's not what you, it's who you know." I knew from the start that it would be important to keep in contact with almost everyone you meet for there are opportunities around each corner. For example, a friend of mine currently works with a company (unnamed for privacy reasons) and heard of an opening, so he is personally handing in my resume to the office to give me an edge in the selection process. My only question is are there any negative aspects to social capital? I can think of so many positives, but not many negatives.