Fat, lazy people win...basically...

After reading the selected articles/chapter for this blog entry -- dealing with social capital and informal networks -- I started to think of all my interactions where these networks have helped. The article titled "The People Who Make Organizations Go-Or Stop" starts with "It's not what you know, it's who you know." (Cross and Prusak, 5) This is extremely true seeing as how websites such as Myspace or Facebook have created more informal networks. Through those networks, while doing homework, I have been able see people who were in the same class as me and could give assistance. That way I could pull up the equivalent to an address book entry vcard. Yet, there was a paradox created because according to managers of many companies in 2002, they believed that these kinds of networks hindered productivity. The reality of this is that we have all found means of procrastination on these websites, or through instant messaging clients (talking to those part of informal networks). The look of some people's Facebook, Myspace or blogging pages are nauseating with the amount of trash that they have on their page (i.e. -- Facebook recently opening up their API to allow 3rd party applications).

It is evident that the means of communication are improving, from wall drawings and a series of grunts, to speech, etc. and eventually on to telegraph, telephone, cellular phone, instant messaging, voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) and whatever the future holds. While I do love listening to those who complain (and I usually laugh to myself) that the usage of the Internet (especially older generations) and the advance of technology destroys social capital. Whereas once I could go and visit someone, I can now not move while we video chat. The advance of technology is the main components of the Laws of Reed, Metcalfe, Sarnoff, and Moore, and uses math to explain the value/worth of networks and their growth potential. (Rheingold, 56-61) Issues arise, at least in my mind, in only a few places: first, we are breeding a fatter generation. Why should I move to visit a friend, co-worker, etc. when I can sit and video chat? Additionally, it makes outsourcing easier which supports capitalistic markets and globalization, but can hinder work forces/the economies on a micro level. All of this forms to really forge a new relationship which we can go ahead and call "Mike's Law": as technology increases (see the previous Laws), social capital decreases. Fat, lazy people win...basically.

Then again, through studies I have found that, as helped proven by the award-winning documentary "Some Kind Of Monster", that collective thought brought on by informal networks does increase quality... To counter my own thought though, Metallica's "St. Anger" album, the product of collective engineering, was NOT great...but that was mainly due to lack of solos and the way the microphones were used to record the drums...

Cross, Rob, and Laurence Prusak. "The People Who Make Organiztions Go-Or Stop." Harvard Business Review June 2002: 5-12.

Cross, Rob, Stephen P. Borgatti, and Andrew Parker. "Making Invisible Work Visible: Using Social Network Analysis to Support Strategic Collaboration." California Management Review 44, 2(2002): 25-46

Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. 1st. Cambridge, MA: Basic Books, 2002