Ok. Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard about the concept of 6-degrees of separation. This theory basically says that any two people ("A" and "G"), anywhere in the world are separated by no more they 6 degrees.
Person A knows person B who knows person C who knows person D who knows person E who knows person F who knows person G!
Pick any person in the world for person A and anyone else for person G and there will be persons B,C,D,E and F who will complete the connection. Kind of wild and very true.
So what?
A great parlor game emerged from this called 6 Degrees from Kevin Bacon which says any actor or actress in any movie can be connected to Kevin Bacon in no more than 6 connections by virtue of starring together in a movie being the connection.
Linkedin is based on this premise. Their assumption is that if I have a rolodex of names and you have a rooldex of names, if we meet each other, than our rolodexes should meet each other.
So if Linkedin continues to grow, eventually all 6 billion plus people on this planet will be "connections" of each other. Maybe we can all be "friends" on Facebook as well. That should end all wars and any religious disputes we may be having in the offline world.
The reality is, while we are all connected, it is trust, context and willingness to interact that determines when, and if, these connections matter.
Funny how people who you haven't spoken to in 20 years instantly become your best friend when you are looking for a job, trying to sell them something or have a great ponzi scheme you wish to perpetuate (can you say 6 degrees from Bernie Madoff? Here's his customer list).
With Groupsites, we understand this phenomenon but we handle things a little differently.
We use a feature called Key Connections. With Key Connections, we allow you to share connections you have to people outside of a Groupsite with fellow members of the Groupsite you are a member of.
You can share different Key Connections with different Groupsites based on context. The Key Connections you share within a family-based Groupsite may be very different from those you share in a Groupsite set up by a professional trade association.
When you share a Key Connection, you are exposing only 3 things:
1. Their Company Name
2. Their role at that company (Top Management (C-Level), Senior Management (VP-Level), Middle Management, Company Influencer, Board Member or Other)
3. The strength of your relationship with them (Strong (Communicate frequently), Medium (Communicate occasionally), Weak (Communicate seldomly)
That's it. We don't let you put email addresses (so spammers can do their evil) or phone numbers (so telemarketers can do their evil).
As one of my Key Connections you will see that I have a Strong relationship with someone in Senior Management at T. Rowe Price. What you will not see is that it is my wife, nor will you see any of her contact information. If you are trying to connect with someone at T. Rowe Price, shoot me a private message, introduce yourself and explain what your need is. At that point, I will decide if I want to connect the dots based on it being a win-win for both parties.
Click here for an step by step explanation on how to add your own Key Connections
By the way, my mom's friend Dot, has a son named Boots who is in the Maryland film industry and has worked quite a bit with director Barry Levenson who directed one of my favorite movies of all time, The Diner, which starred Kevin Bacon. So I am just 5 degrees from Kevin Bacon. Woo hoo!