POD Group Meeting - Blue Group: Reflections of First Meeting

Saturday 10/10/09: A Change of Heart!

I never really considered how social networks can help professional development. I thought this question was a joke and there was not any real benefit in using Second Life, Twitter or Facebook for professional development. I thought that they would provide too many distractions and they are not professional forums for professional development to take place in.

However, our chat tonight changed my perceptions. In our chat, Andrew informed us that Second Life has been used by IBM for professional Development, and I have since read about this further. IBM set up thier own island for the purpose. We discussed the fact that multinational organisations can use Second Life but would need to ensure staff are familiar with the environment in order to participate. There would also need to be a leader whose role it is to ensure that an agenda is followed and that participants are not distracted by the site.

We also discussed possibilities for Twitter being used to link with experts in areas of interest and follow their activities, thoughts and blogs. It is therefore possible for multinational organisations to use Twitter for professional reading and professional development.

We could not find a use for Facebook because it provides too many distractions and the chat facility only allows one-on-one conversation, and does not allow for others to enter the conversation. However, we may need to consider that Facebook has the ability for users to create their own network based on interests. Therefore like minded companies could use it for professional development. They would still need to address the issues of privacy, security of information and particpants, and the possible distractions that may prevent participants from fully engaging in any professional development activities.

We also discussed the advantages of Webex, and that the cost would be insignificant compared to the cost of flying people from around the world.