Thursday, August 14, 2008

Frolleagues


r
I just love all those portmanteau words! In Canada I discovered the wonderful idea of a snack called a naanwich, a real linguistic mash-up! I also recently listened to a programme on infomercials. Infomercial is a term used to describe those endlessly boring programmes that try to convince you that you need some weird gadget - or on the lighter side, those TV shopping channels (which, of course I never watch). So when I saw the feed on this piece on frolleagues I just had to read it. Interestingly, I’ve just had an invite to LinkedIn so it was useful to read. Amusing that LinkedIn recommends that users keep a separate account for socialising so that business contacts don't mix with friends! Their spokeswoman warns us that it's becoming increasingly important that we keep our professional and social lives separate and manage our online reputation as effectively as possible. Well I suppose we all do a bit of impression management, but I always felt one of the strengths of online spaces is the opportunity they present to blur some of those boundaries. Oh and by the way, it seems that a frolleague is a colleague who sends a friendship request. So let’s put a stop to all that nonsense, first name terms and the like. It’s all on a professional footing now. If I met you through work and I see you on the street I’m going to blank you (or maybe not).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Guy

interesting post. However I looked on Linkedin and could not find you. Actually I started a UKLA group on Linkedin (is that OK? - what do you think?) -only three members so far :-)

All the best
Sigrid

Guy Merchant said...

Yeah well, I didn't know whether to sign up or not and wasn't sure of the benefits! What a good idea to start a UKLA group though. :)

Anonymous said...

I am also not sure of the benefits, but I figure as with many of these social networking sites, I will only find out if I try to make it work. Facebook is not really for me. Earlier this year I was at a games conference, and it seemed to me that games researchers use Linkedin a lot, So maybe there are professional clusters of people who use it, and others not.

Guy Merchant said...

I guess you're right. The only way to find out is to start participating. I suppose I've been signing up to so many Web 2.0 things this past year, that I'm getting a bit selective ... and like you with Facebook!