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September 04, 2000 (Computerworld) -- Last summer, a researcher asked the head of a small San Francisco media company - let's call him Gary - a simple question: "Who are all the people in your office space, and why are they here?"
Easy question, right? Not even close. On any given day, there were 12 full-time employees, two new freelancers, two long-term freelancers and one client at Gary's firm, which designs Web pages and graphical interfaces for computer games.
The client came in at the start of a project - and stayed. He used one of Gary's conference rooms to hold meetings for his other projects so he could avoid a commute - and his boss, Gary says with a laugh.
Others on Gary's staff telecommuted, using e-mail to keep in touch. One animator just used the telephone and surfaced only to drop off drawings. Others were juggling various things at once: One coordinator was taking over information systems, and a freelancer valued for her ink and paint talents was helping with project coordination.
If this sounds maddening for everyone to track, you're right. If tracking everyone seems necessary, you're also right, because these days, your social network is crucial to finding new employees, helping you keep your job or finding a new one.
With that in mind, two researchers at Florham Park, N.J.-based AT&T Labs - design anthropologist Bonnie Nardi, who works in Menlo Park, Calif., and interaction designer Steve Whittaker, who works in Florham Park - are designing software to help individuals tame their social networks.
Dubbed "ContactMap," the planned software will be part alternative computer desktop, giving users access to various types of communications, and part information index, for reconstructing previous conversations, e-mails and swapped information.
If successful, the software will dramatically reduce the effort it takes to track and maintain contact with a social network. The current prototype is written in Java and runs on Windows. The creators are hoping for a full prototype by December, and if AT&T moves forward with it, the software could be released as early as next year.
Welcome to the New Economy, where skills are useful, but maintaining a good network might be the most important skill of all.
Networks don't end within a company's walls: Many times, individuals band together in so-called communities of practice - collections of individuals doing similar jobs in different organizations who can help educate one another, find one another jobs and serve as impromptu support groups. These communities aren't confined to the workplace.
At least, that's what the anthropologists found when they studied 22 people in 12 different organizations during the past two years.

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