Networks networks networks

I picked up a paper the other day by Nardi, Whittaker & Schwarz (2002) about networkers and their activity in intensional networks.

I guess that for me as I read it, it began to ring bells of recognition. They talked about the work that goes into building, using and maintaining networks associated with project based work. This includes activities such as remembering/ recalling people (including keeping databases), communicating with them during projects and keeping in touch between projects. Added to this are managing relationships between organisational insiders and outsiders (short term contractors), "feeding" relationships by making sure to know things about people's personal circumstances, keeping track of who they know, and ensuring that appropriate language is used with different people in the network. It made me realise that my work managing a research programme looking at Maori tourism development has involved a great deal of networking work - work that is not really recognised as work per se and certainly not accounted for well in this system.

I was particularly interested in the questions that the authors raised about the distinction between strong and weak ties (as Granovetter coined them), because this work highlights a more gradual continuum that is likely to be time bounded. ie your weak tie today may become tomorrow strong tie as that person is brought in closer for a particular project.

ka kite ano

Chrys