Networking (what is it?)
- Meeting and becoming friendly with peers in your life
- Maintain! those relationships
- Putting yourself in the rights situations to meet these people
Places to meet people:
Social Networking
On the job
Galleries, studios etc
Conventions, conferences
art station, discord?
On the Job
Workshops, talks
festivals
Parties, Bars
Funders:
Film commission
community trust
Events fund
ICC
Networking_the_Network
We read an article about networking written by Phil Agre and were given a set of 18 questions to answer about it:
1. Agre asserts that network is fundamentally about community - a claim he stakes particular importance on because of the technological age in which we live. He asserts "I see no substitute for the hard human work of building community one person at a time, on the basis of openly explored shared interests, through interactions in a variety of media. Communities built in this fashion hold together because they are fastened with the real glue of human relationship, not just the technical glue of codes and files." Stressing the importance that these communities hold together, stronger for longer.
"The truth is that the world is made of people. People out of communities are like fish out of water or plants out of soil."
The cornerstone of networking to him is human connection and relationships, the things that build community - he says "All of the capacity and velocity of electronic communication is wasted unless we use it to seek out, cultivate, and nurture relationships with other human beings."
2. Agre believes that research of all kinds depend critically "on intensive and continually evolving communication among people engaged in related projects."
He makes a clear distinction between research and networking, pointing out that neither can make the other obsolete - "Networking cannot substitute for good research, but good research cannot substitute for networking either."
3. Agre says that "Establishing professional relationships with particular people and involving yourself in particular professional communities will change you: not only will you internalize a variety of interesting points of view, but you will become more comfortable in your writing and speaking because you will be engaged in an ongoing conversation with people you know."
4. On the suject of community Agre goes on to say: "if no community is waiting for you, you will have to go out and build one -- one person at a time." We have to find people that think like us or share our interests if an established group doesn't already exist.
5. Agre says at least a day per week should be spent establishing and developing your own professional community, I am assuming this can translate to 12 or more hours a week and be dispersed throughout. People have busy schedules but a dedicated day can help a lot in assuring that people are free one day a week for gatherings and furthering of whatever cause they adopt to - church on Sundays have proven this to be true and effective for a very long time. ("This "overhead" can be a nuisance at first, but none of it is terribly difficult once you get some practice and really convince yourself that you cannot sustain your professional life without devoting about a day per week to it.") I'd have to say I agree with him, its socialization, a thing we do naturally anyway and spending time with like minded people should be effortless. It's an interesting idea to actually be present with how much time you're spending though, it's so easy to forget how much progress you've made.
6. Agre's six steps to professional networking are as follows:
(1) Know your goals.
"Clear goals will help you maintain focus. Do not, however, use your professional networking to achieve personal goals such as finding friends and lovers."
(2) Identify some relevant people.
"In the world of research, mutual interest is almost always defined through the content of your research: you wish to contact people whose research bears some important relationship to yours."
(3) Court these people individually.
"Here is the procedure: (a) choose someone you wish to approach and read their work with some care; (b) make sure that your article cites their work in some substantial way (in addition to all your other citations); (c) mail the person a copy of your article; and (d) include a low-key, one-page cover letter that says something intelligent about their work."
(4) Meet this person face-to-face at a professional meeting.
"Go ahead and attend the research presentations, especially the ones that specifically seem likely to be valuable to you. But spend most of your time tracking people down and talking to them."
(5) Exchange drafts.
Agre stresses the difference between working with someone higher or lower than you in the hierachy, giving two different approaches when exchanging drafts with each, it boils down to intelligent comments and a sense of positivity though.
(6) Follow up.
"Keep coming up with simple ways to be useful to the people in your network. A few times a year is plenty. Pass things along to them. Mention their work to other people. Plug them in your talks. Include them in things. Get your department or laboratory to invite them to speak. Put them up when they come to town. And invent other helpful things to do that nobody ever thought of before."
7. About networking Agre says "It produces bonds of reciprocal obligation through the exchange of favors." I think by this he means that if you do something for someone else, a favour or charitable act, it creates an unspoken sense of obligation in the other person to reciprocate that favour or notion. For example if you read an article that a peer wrote and you critique it for them, the likelihood that they will do the same for you is not only much more likely but it also means that they will feel forced to do so - although this wouldn't be in a negative manner in my opinion, rather out of a sense of gratitude and they will do so happily.
8. Agre says that networking requires you to "cultivate a realistic awareness of power", I think this relates to hierarchy and knowing where someone ranks in the larger scheme of things, as well as understanding the power of influence that a person holds. I agree with him on this, but I don't think it's a sense that should change the way you approach people too much. Having that awareness is important, especially when networking with someone who has a higher status in the community than you do (one needs to be more cautious and very open to the advice that they have to share), but when dealing with others on your level, or even below you, I think it's important to treat everyone the same. You never know how valuable someone who doesn't at first seem to have a lot of power can be. It's good to be friends with everyone, maybe this is what Agre means by "realistic", don't go just with those in high places. Know who has influence and know who is likely to reciprocate.
9. Agre says networking "calls for a significant but manageable up-front investment", I think he means that you get out what you put in, your time, interest and favours for others is a significant investment, one that has to be offered at the very start of the relationship, but it needs to manageable - meaning you aren't giving up your own pursuits or pooling your resources into just one person. Do favours for various individuals and keep time for your own development.
10. * The temptation to react.
The inclination to be impulsive, not thinking before responding.
"The more impulsive you are, the more you're using the network to find friends as opposed to colleagues, and the greater your unmet needs for affirmation and attention, the more you will be led into reaction."
* The temptation to treat people like machines.
Be polite, the person on the other end is still a human being. The basics of etiquette and politeness still apply online, Agre uses this example:
"Most particularly, if somebody on the net helps you out (for example by providing some information in response to a query on a discussion group), say "Thank you" and perhaps give a brief account of how their help was helpful."
* The temptation to pretense.
Be sure in what you say, do the research and have backup evidence - don't jump to conclusions or assume things.
"Electronic communication affords the illusion of semi-anonymity: since people only know you by what you type, you may tend to lose the inhibitions that normally keep you from pronouncing on matters that you are not really informed about. The chatty informality of most e-mail discussion groups, which is certainly capable of being a force for good in the world, nonetheless also tends to wear down these inhibitions. Besides, everyone else is doing it. But pretending to know things is just as bad an idea on e-mail as it is face-to-face. Phrases like "I think I recall that ..." and "my understanding is ..." are red flags -- indications that you're probably about to do more harm than good. Keep focused on your own unique professional contributions and let the random chatter slide."
* The temptation to paranoia.
We don't always know if who we're talking to online, don't be afraid of who is listening/watching, be confident and comfortable to say what is necessary.
"Along with your own near-anonymity goes the frequent difficulty of knowing who exactly is receiving your discussion-group messages. As a result, you may just listen in, terrified to say anything for fear that you will be dumped on by powerful experts -- an experience sometimes stigmatized (or even celebrated, as if it expressed some kind of power) as "lurking". This phenomenon is not exclusive to e-mail, of course (much hype to the contrary), but it is real."
* The temptation to get overwhelmed.
"It's easy to sign up for everything that sounds interesting, or to pursue dozens of people in every direction, only to find yourself swamped with messages to read and favors to return. If you're getting more than about twenty messages a day in your mailbox then perhaps you should review your goals and prune back accordingly."
* The temptation to get addicted.
"Addiction means getting overwhelmed on purpose. Few people take e-mail addiction seriously, but it is a genuine addiction and it can be a self-destructive waste of time. Ask yourself: Can I just decide to give it a rest for a few days? Am I doing this because I get some identifiable value out of it, or am I doing it to distract myself from my feelings? Do I use other things to distract myself from my feelings -- drugs, sex, food, alcohol, television, work? If you start thinking that any of the answers to these questions might be "yes", go find a twelve-step recovery group in your community (Alcoholics Anonymous or the many other programs that have been modeled on it) -- or maybe start one on the net."
* The temptation to waste time.
"Exploring the net is a tremendous way to avoid writing your thesis. The net goes on forever these days, and you can waste a great deal of time playing with it."
* The temptation to blame e-mail for your problems.
"E-mail has its shortcomings to be sure, but it's just a tool like any other. You'll have to learn how to use it, what to use it for, and when not to use it."
11. The most effective implementation for E-Mail in the six step process of networking that Agre recommends is step #6 (Follow-Up), all the other steps have better or equally effective substitutes, but of step #6 he says:
"This is one area where e-mail makes a qualitative difference. Once you've established a professional relationship with someone, e-mail provides a convenient way to maintain a steady, low-key background of useful two-way interactions"
12. Agre explains what he means by 'emerging theme' in Networking: 'Popular science writing to the side, new ways of doing research rarely spring full-blown from any individual's head. Rather, somebody who has been keeping up with many different research projects starts to notice a trend. Perhaps it's a previously unnoticed analogy among various new concepts; perhaps it's a metaphor that makes sense out of a range of seemingly unrelated results; perhaps it's a pattern that appears to underlie the work of several different groups; or perhaps it's a method that several groups have independently found useful or necessary. Fame and fortune justly attach to the people who notice such things, put names on them, and gather together the people whose research appears to fall within them.''
13. Agre suggests there are four qualities that people who have fame and fortune attached to them:
1. Their own research shows patterns
2. They care about the research of others
3. Communicate with other people and keep up-to-date with them
4. Smart enough to notice patterns at all
"(1) their own research is an instance of the patterns they are noticing (unfortunately, this is usually a prerequisite to being taken seriously in the role of pattern-seeker), (2) they care enough to actually think about other people's research (this quality is often in short supply, thus creating abundant opportunities for those who possess it), (3) they communicate intensively enough with other people to actually keep up-to-date with them (this is where e-mail helps), and (4) they are smart enough to notice the patterns in the first place (this is sometimes the least important factor). You can work wonders if you cultivate these qualities."
14. Agre's steps for consultation:
- Once you've noticed an emerging theme, identify who the affected parties are
- Notify the applicable individuals about the emerging theme (can be done in a variety of ways, one is to write a draft and send it out to people individually)
- Organize a meeting or some sort to discuss/consult
15. Agre says that: "The skills of recognizing human difference -- not in the abstract, but concretely, within particular interactions and particular relationships -- are growing more important as research communities in all fields lose their national and cultural boundaries." It's easy for us to look for people who seem identical to us and not engage with those who we deem to be different to us, Agre describes this as a mistake, in the world we live in now we can communicate, and network it anyone and so we should.
16. Agre makes a distinction between the technological and physical world when it comes to creating communities, he says that the old fashioned way of real human relationships is much more effective than the technical glue of "codes and files":
"In short, I see no substitute for the hard human work of building community one person at a time, on the basis of openly explored shared interests, through interactions in a variety of media. Communities built in this fashion hold together because they are fastened with the real glue of human relationship, not just the technical glue of codes and files"
17. Agre's stance on technology seems to be very discerning, he sees the value in it, but also recognises its faults. overall he seems to be a great advocate for real human interaction, saying:
"If you don't like the structures you encounter, please go right ahead and start changing them -- just make sure you're changing things down here on earth, amidst your actual relationships with actual people, and not in an abstract technological head-space."
"a community has to meet in person"
18. I think when Agre says that we have to "Cultivate an understanding of the social logic of community-building" its undoubtedly good advice. It also seems like very obvious advice, but he is using it in his closing paragraphs as more of a summary of the entire text. I think what makes this advice important lies more-so in his preceding paragraphs where he takes a deeper dive into the concept, but its obviously something everyone should at least try to make sense of. Building an understanding is important because it's through the application of that social logic that one can start making a network, and using that network and connections to become successful and further the field as a whole.
NOTE: These questions helped me gain a better understanding if the article than I managed to accumulate by just simply reading it, so that's good I guess, but a lot of them were really well explained by Agre himself and I can't help but feel that a lot of my own summaries don't come close to his.
Gotta love that thumbnail
We watched this video in class, the interesting things the man points out seems to me to be about tehe actual physical approach of meeting people, the closed twos, open ones and groups of threes (with one woman!) is really interesting and have cemented in my mind. I know this because I immediately started noticing these patterns in real life and it is already a semi-meme in our class, so jolly good job to this tanned, bald egomaniac.
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