A few weeks ago, I had lunch with a tech entrepreneur in Rome. He was exhausted. He told me how he and his staff had just finished a major project re-launching a series of Web sites that incorporated a dizzying array of functions – from e-commerce to an RSS news reader, and widgets galore. His staff of four coders did the work of 15, he boasted, before coming clean. “I got help from Xing,” he told me. Xing – or more precisely, Xing.com – is a social networking site for European professionals – a MySpace for the working world, if you will. There are over 2 million users, from lawyers to Web designers, who post CV-style their job skills, experience, their contacts, professional recommendations, and, crucially, their ability to take on work in a pinch. My Roman contact recruited a temporary staff of a half-dozen techies and finished the job on time and under budget. Xing launched a jobs marketplace last month to better connect prospective employers with skilled candidates. Once you pull up your profile page, you see a listing of job openings within your network. A few more clicks and you’re sending your details to the recruiter. Similarly, members can post open positions, either to their network or to the entire user base. Similarly, the world’s largest online professional network, LinkedIn.com, has been positioning itself as the ultimate networking tool. With nearly 11 million users -- expanding at a rate of 180,000 per week – around the world, LinkedIn has succeeded in shrinking the business world to within a few degrees of separation, measured in clicks. As these networks grow it is remarkable to see how your potential base of business contacts expands with it. My LinkedIn profile is still heavily biased towards tech and media contacts, but recently it’s expanded dramatically to include academics, legal experts and even professionals from the art world. If I now want to find, say, a linguist, a simple search pops up 121 names, replete with recommendations and an explanation about who in my network could best make the introduction for me. As LinkedIn and Xing are proving, social networks are growing up. Friends Reunited, and Friendster helped us reconnect with an old flame or long lost classmate. Then, MySpace and Bebo helped teens and twenty-somethings expand their group of friends and acquaintances, perfect for organising something on Saturday nights, usually involving a local gig. Read page two.

Published on 13 June 2007