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Greetings, I've not changed the subject line for this discussion, to enable readers of the archive to follow the discussion via the thread. Overall the discussion queried how information about how information practitioners and others through their education were being encouraged to find communities of interest. The discussion veered into whether e-mail discussion lists were archaic and outmoded, and should be replaced with "social networking" sites such as Twitter and MySpace and the like. I would like to draw a careful distinction between e-mail lists and "social networking" sites. (Bernie is exactly right, in that the e-mail lists (and, for that matter, the origins of e-mail itself in the appending of a personal, social comment to an FTP'd file across the network) are all social networking techniques and sites. The distinction is this: e-mail lists ask you to "follow the group." A group of folks with a common interest gather together electronically and talk. jESSE is an example. So-called "social networking" sites ask you to "follow the individual." Look at ME!! See what I have to say!! I can't fault Mary Minow's libraries and the law blog - it's great, but she's established herself in this area through other media. And Lorcan Dempsey's (from OCLC Research) might be interesting. This is a fundamental distinction. And both directions have their place in a complex information environment. The first is based on the group, the second is based on an individual. It is patently unrealistic and uninformed to say that one is better, or should replace the other. --gw <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Gretchen Whitney, PhD, retired School of Information Sciences University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996 USA [log in to unmask] http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/ jESSE:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/jesse.html SIGMETRICS:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>