By nature I am an introvert. I don’t schmooze. I don’t “network”. Like Sartre, I am firmly in the “Hell is other people” camp. However, since social and collaborative computing is large part of what we work on at IBM, and we’ve recently signed deals with LinkedIn and Skype, I’ve decided to jump in with both feet and see what value these and other social networking and communication services have to offer.
Certainly, within IBM, I’m constantly typing into Sametime. I wouldn’t be surprised if I exchange more internal information, counted by characters, in instant messages, than I do in emails. However, in my external communications, both professional and personal, it is almost entirely via email for 1-to1 communications, and this blog for broadcasts. I’d like to experiment a bit and see what other tools and services are effective. This isn’t a long term commitment to being social, but a experiement. We’ll see how it goes.
So, I’ve put up my contact information for various social sites on my Who is Rob Weir? page. Feel free to contact me via these services. Also, I’d be interested in what other services you think I should be looking at.