FOAF networks

What professional benefits do you see by investing some time in a FOAF-style network?


In chapter 9 of Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky describes using friend of a friend style networks. In these networks, you receive notifications of your friends and those of your friends' friends. Shirky describes using a service called dodgeball. He sent out a blast to his network saying he was going to a certain bar. His friends got messages that he'd be at the bar, but his friends' friends also got messages that their friend's friend was going to that bar. Through this service he met his friend's friend that he probably wouldn't have been able to meet otherwise, using it to "broker introductions" (219). 


I can see this kind of network have many advantages professionally. The job I had through high school, I received because one of my friends had a friend that was hiring someone to help with her graphic design business. Having "bridging" capital and friends with "bridging" capital is valuable, as Shirky describes. Having a network that is based on cultivating these connections could have professional benefits by aiding in receiving a job and moving up in companies. I think that is the main advantage, especially right now when it is statistically harder to get a job when you're qualified, connections are vital. Just how Shirky met someone he didn't already through a friend using this kind of network, we could meet future employers.