Periodic Ramblings

Looks like IBM has decided to enter the world of social networking.

Most developers are familiar with IBM’s DeveloperWorks site, but did you know that besides being a knowledge base for development information and research, it is also a social networking site.  Yes, you can create your own geek profile here and connect with other geeks.

It follows a lot of the same mindset as other sites, allowing you to create a profile, put information about yourself in regards to professional and personal details, and post pictures and status updates.  It looks to be trying to link people via common technical interests expertise and also by past interactions whether those be professional or personal.

This is an interesting take on social networking.  I guess it will be another location along with Facebook and Linkedin that I will need to keep updated.

I never thought I would be disappointed to not be connected to the IM system where I work. We are a Lotus Notes shop and use IBM’s Sametime technology for IM. Usually I find IM at work to be intrusive and hamper ability to focus and get work done. That was until today.

I am at home and having issues connecting through VPN to work, so I am without IM capabilities as we only allow a web portal to mail and not IM. To communicate, I have to perform serial phone calls to one person or send emails and wait for responses.  This adds to the timeliness of responses to simple requests that normally would be a quick IM and response back.

I guess there is a place in the work environment for IM, especially when trying to communicate real-time with a number of people on a number of different topics.