January 14, 2010

The 2.0 Ties that Bind Us

You have probably heard of folks using the term "ties" to describe the strength of a relationship between two people. A strong tie indicates someone that is close to you while a weak relationship is one more of an acquaintance. Of course, there is a mountain of grey between those two descriptions. For example, there are people that sit next to me in "Cubeville" that I have strong ties with. These are not as strong as the ties I had earlier in my career when I worked in close proximity to where I lived. Today, I work about 45 miles away from home and living on the south side of Atlanta puts me an additional 30 miles away from most of my co-workers. This distance weakens our ties since we don't go out for dinner or play softball on a weekly basis. My weak ties extend to people on my own team since I have never actually met them in person and they may live on the other side of the country.

Social Software adds another example of weak ties in that many of us read blogs or check out wiki pages authored by people we have never met or worked together on a project. That being said, the technology allows us to develop those weak ties and still find value in the relationships. I have no issue IM'ing several members of our community and asking them what they think about an idea or technology. Clearly, I wouldn't even have known they existed or were interested if we didn't have this social software available. Reach and touch someone that you don't know, maybe they have the solution to a problem you've been facing for months. There is tremendous value in weak ties and in a global company that may be all that we have in the near future.

Posted by Todd at January 14, 2010 6:47 AM

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