More on networking sites, Kaneva, Twinity, Spoke, Jigsaw,..

The social networking services are morphing with the virtual worlds from gaming. Two good examples are;

Kaneva a US based company in Atlanta where you can design your own world and mix it with facts and real people you network with. Try it out here. A German based counterpart exaple is Twinity which is in private beta right now by the Berlin based company, Metaversum.
I have only tried Kaneva so far, unfortunately, their business model seems to be based right away on paying for building up our virtual world.

AlwasOn Network is among other things a networking service. AO is mainly known in Silicon Valley for their extensive coverage of start-up companies, inventions, new technologies, Venture Capital coverage (including arranging briefings, conferences and seminars). Bigger events are often done jointly or sponsored by KPMG. Take a look at my profile and try out the services and good access to information and personal contacts you get from AO.

Spoke has transformed itself from being just another networking site into a serious business database resource of 40M+ business contacts. You can easily search (though site response is slow sometimes) for all levels of business people. After renewed use of Spoke recently, they can be viewed as a premium version of Jigsaw (more about Jigsaw later in this post). This service though comes at a premium price, $50/month for an invidual user. Well worth the price if you are a serious corporate marketing user.

SiliconIndia is a relatively new networking and information site in India that is still in beta and allows free access to all members. Good portal to access the booming Indian/Asian continent. Worth keeping an eye on.

WirelessFactors is a niche networking site mainly addressing wireless professionals. The site is still small though but with useful info for wireless.

Jigsaw is a more open (free option in addition to premium services) business contact service than Spoke. Jigsaw works like a tradingpost for business cards. Good contact database, though limited to about half a dozen countries, you can e.g. only access or trade contacts in UK for the EU countries. Jigsaw also gives you free access to Anagram, (register at Jigsaw and dowload from Jigsaw) a useful software tool for easy drag and drop of contact information into Jigsaw.

Staffingforce is an interesting networking site entirely focused on recruiting networks. Read before you do something about this site, George Vasu's blog, there you will get all you need to know before registering. See, http://vasutown.blogspot.com/ A very interesting approach to business building and social networking.

This is the networking update for now.

Happy reading,/Thomas