Saturday, January 01, 2011

Super-Connectors?

As librarians and information professionals, we've been strangely attacked within the past decade about web 2.0's necessities to "connect" with users and to "outreach" to our constituencies about our usefulness.  As a result, we've been busily preparing for the onslaught by integrating our working minds into social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.   Has it worked?   For the most part, it's helped align ourselves to the (albeit digital) world.   But other than that, there's been a lot of chatter that such social media tools have been just librarians talking to other librarians.    If that has been the measuring stick, then I dare say we've been one of the most active and successful professions in doing so.  And we haven't lost our jobs doing it, too.

Superconnect is a fascinating new book about the strength of connections, but puts the onus back in the real physical world.  It offers a unique look at what librarians (among many others) should be doing: reconnecting with one another.  Moving past just the tight, narrow confines of the library shelves and stacks.  Surging beyond the walls of library-think, and into other networks and spheres. I read this book with great interest, not only as a reference book, but ultimately as a book about humanity which we can all learn from.   Here are some highlights:


1. Strength of Weak Links -  When it comes to communicating from one person to a target in a different world, weak links far outperform strong ones.  Studies have shown that people tend to overuse family and friends, but "underuse" people they don't know particularly well.  It is casual acquaintances that are nine times better than friends at providing the connections we need or giving us useful information.

2.  SuperConnectors - Unlike our prejudged vision of slick, savvy, prominent socialites, super connectors are actually humble folks who just happen to connect with people because they have placed themselves at the centre of a social system, integrating into a number of networks and nodes that might otherwise have been isolated from one another.  Most importantly, a superconnector is willing to "connect" others.

3.  Internet - It's important not because it is a new world, but rather it is an old world.  It's given us terrific intensification of the communication and network that have actually been built decades and even centuries before its very invention. Social networks have given us tools to lubricate relationships, helping us record, organize, and manage our online connections, acquaintances, and memberships.  How's that for improvement?

4.  The "Third Place" - To live an interesting life means also the need to cultivate rich, meaningful weak connections.  The third place is a term which describe locations where one habitually relaxes and spends time.  Regular visits to third places, and irregular visits to new ones, are crucial to renewing and forging these so-called weak links.  Even going to the local park, and being among lots of people can be considered a process of connecting.  How's that for living a rich life?

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