Getting in-between: Three musings about using social media for careers on MentorNet

1. Immediate intimacy, harmonic channels, & solo performances: The buzz this month is once again growing loud about the potential of social media for virtually every aspect of our lives. Facebook has proven the social stickiness of immediate and universal intimacy. LinkedIn is proving another point about the mixer and biz card exchange functions writ large, instantly, and globally.  Twitter is yet a third, showing the power of a multimillion-voice chaotic chorus of tweets to produce channels of harmony and solo performances before vast personal audiences. Fame at 140 characters a pop.  And since January, MentorNet has been offering the same potential to our own smaller slice of the world, those interested in enabling careers in engineering and science to blossom. We're here re-inviting you all to deploy it by putting up your picture, filling out your personal career profile, and connecting to others in our community of 30,000.

2. Value in the middle: Media means, literally, "the in-betweens." If technology is going to provide a channel in-between to connect people, it provides value in one of two ways: it makes the channel drop-dead simple, totally transparent, free, wide-open, and universally accessible; or it adds something that justifies getting in the way, like a flavor, a focus, access to a certain audience, or tools that amplify and enhance the experience. MentorNet has followed the second path. We get in-between by creating a special relationship between the mentor and the protégé and then we guide it to success for both parties.

3. Toward telepathy: This MentorNet way to travel along the second road - getting in the way in order to provide extra value - has lessons for every kind of relationship. A good match and a good script for the conversation that ensues unleashes all sorts of positive potential in that intimate space between people. It's a distance technology that shrinks the distance. I envision a time when having a matched and guided relationship will seem as natural as the highly artificial constraints of Twitter have become and people will be matched for one-on-one relationships that are so harmonious they seem telepathic. 

By David Porush, CEO