We'll Pick Back Up On That On Another Page

Some seemingly unconnected thoughts.
Today I read an article about social networking. Being that I work in a job in which it requires me to know how people are connected to one another (Do they work together? Sit on boards together? Are families old friends? Are they rivals?) I thought it would be interesting to read about social networking technology. Apparently there's a new career path in which people are combining sociology and mathematics and determining a person's value to a company based upon how many social interactions that person has. Obviously there are quite a few problems with this. If someone is spending all their time in the breakroom, for instance, they're not very productive. But this was more about how large a person's social net goes. The group this article focused upon is actually a group of scientists--people others don't usually think about when thinking about "social." But it made the point that it is often necessary to collaborate with others, especially on research. Which made me realize how much more I need to get out and talk to people in my job. Now, I am comfortable. I like my desk, I like sitting here typing away...I'd rather have people come to me. Really, though I need the networking--I need to know what these people know...who these people know. And the more they tell me, the better.

For someone who's feeling quite lazy and apathetic, this is not so good.

Another site I hit today was wikipedia. (www.en.wikipedia.org) This is such a dangerous site! For those who have not visited, it's like an online encyclopedia...but the articles are all connected. For instance, I visited today for naming customs, and ended up clicking on "hebrew" and then "Ashkenazi" and then "Levantine"...all bolded words that connected me to a separate article that allowed me to learn even more. This is an absolute time waster for me--wasting in the sense that I can keep reading and reading and reading and it has nothing to do with my job. Sure, naming customs does, I need to know which name is the surname for people from other countries. But Judiasm? Not so much. It just hit an interest with me.

I think these two could be linked--social networking and wikipedia. Type someone's name into a social search engine, and you'll get their bio, along with all the people they're friends with, companies they've worked for, boards they sit on...ah, this would be so helpful. Maybe I'll start it one day...in my free time.

But for now, it's the gym, and grocery shopping, and hitting up Payless Shoes, and cooking dinner and doing taxes...
AND continuing to be bothered by the number of phrases in that last paragraph that ended with a preposition. How do I fix that without sounding stuffy? It bugs me to no end.