The journey project

Maybe not a link – but certainly something in common.  Social networking is being keenly discussed across this campus under the banner of *engagement* and the online communities project by the Office of Development is the latest project to approach fruition.  The first Steering Group meeting was held yesterday and it was encouraging to hear a repeated focus on the community aspect of an online community.  Whilst we (Anne, Michael, Jill, Meredith, John and I) started to make traction about what we thought the community might focus on and what benefit participants would gain I was also thinking of the most recent and, by all accounts hugely successful social network to be launched in the US.

Do I mean Pass It Along (developed by IBM and Duke University who say it is “aimed at facilitating collaborative knowledge sharing within organizations”). Not this time.

I am referring to the new social networking site launched by World Wrestling Entertainment called WWE Universe.  Seriously there are lessons to be learned here!  WWE Universe had a reported 200,000 members sign-up with virtually no promotion.  The network is targeted to fans (mostly men aged 18-35 – not much of a surprise) and the pro-wrestlers themselves make frequent appearances, chatting with members, promoting events and launching pay-per-view.  It’s a slick site with a purpose that has real and immediate benefit for fans.  The WWE gets to marshal their fans into one site and feed them content.  Sounds pretty smart to me and certainly sounds like something we could learn from for the OoD project*.

*(I concede we’d have less photos of people in spandex – that’s probably a good thing).

The power of networking and my eagerness to promote the project has already resutled in a neat cross-collaboration.  I’ve been invited to join the Steering Group for the new Alumni online community project being run by the Office of Development