the strength of loose ties

Although I am extremely cautious about the internet and using it as a prime tool for networking I must admit, that I realized, as I was working through "Reader 3" that I personally rely an awful lot on it already to keep in touch with people (I find myself thinking..."oh, it would be so much easier to be friends in  "Facebook", rather than calling each other lets say once a month...") and could actually only benefit more from using it wisely to my advantage- especially from a professional point of view.
Maybe it lies within the nature of the job I currently fulfill. On a regular full working day I spend 7 hours in the ballet-studio, together with my colleagues, which often makes me too tired to spend the 3 hours I have in the evening to myself to be on the phone, or compose long e-mails. Quick "Facebook" news feeds come in extremely handy.
It has been great taking a good look at my internal mirror and self-reflecting, who I represent as a professional and observe my inner self-discrepancy (Crisp&Turner) between who I am now, whom I would like to be and who I am thinking I ought to be.
As I do tend to spend a lot of time at work my day-to-day professional network is a very up close and personal one. It is nice to comfort my inner animal by knowing the heard I have around me almost every day and being able to observe and read my colleagues actions.
My broader professional network is very much tied to the phone, through which I keep on touch with close personal friends, that were once my peers or colleagues, or of course, for the lump-sum of my past, present and maybe future fellows, the internet.
Like Alicia Beck, whose writing I greatly admire, states in her blog entry from the 19.11.2011, upon entering the world of professional dance you "quickly wisen up to the cut-throat world you have let yourself into". Being clever you quickly realize that without the right amount of "vitamin C" you are very easily overlooked and forgotten. Some have a natural gift of weaving a strong professional web, that will catch them at any given moment, others less so. But the general notion seems to be that "if you can´t beat ´em- join ´em".

Now without wanting to sound too one-sided here there seems to be a great tendency to centralize our lives around the internet. Almost every more established practitioner I know of seems to have their own web-site. I can totally grasp the beauty of creating a key, in form of a simple web-address, to a parallel universe that exists on the internet, where you can add numerous links, videos, pictures and keep people up to date with RSS-feed, posts and tweets.
What must not be underestimated though is that in order to keep a contact it must first have been created- which also nowadays still tends to happen at personal, face-to-face basis. Many dancers, choreographers and company managers come together and meet at performances (especially premieres), dance/choreographic competitions and other dance events and symposia. Here again you are often introduced to someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone. Or you build a bridge yourself, by introducing people to one another.

Personally I tend to use the internet a lot. I don´t have a TV at home, but I am getting "square eyes" by spending most evenings in front of my beloved computer. It is also funny, how dull the thing seems to me, if I don´t have an internet connection! I am almost shocked at how dependent I have become to the ease of having the world at my fingertips, having grown up in a world, where you looked the unknown up in the "Brockhaus", you wrote letters to your friends (squiggly handwriting and little doodles included), where your mom typed out her exam-papers on a tipe-writer and you carefully decided, what you wanted to take a picture of. And where you did not get green hair over the automatic spelling corrector, but actually knew, how to spell correctly yourself!!!
But like every new technology- you can either jump on the boat, go with the flow or however you want to put it, or not. You can make the most out of it and use it wisely to your advantage, or you are left behind. Like a friend of mine said, who bravely relented joining Facebook until he recently caved in, "if you don´t go to the playground, the other kids won´t play with you."
I´ve been toying with the idea of having my own web-sites, since the internet has become more accessible to me and the people around me (wireless everywhere). I also went through a phase in my life, where I wanted to leave Facebook, went back to a dial-in connection and a pay as you go mobile-phone, but was quickly frustrated, when I read an interesting article, there would always be a web-link for further reading, additional photos or videos concerning the subject.
I have however kept the "tradition" of sending a letter to people once a year- printed on paper and sent by snail-mail. To me that is a way of keeping a more personal private network, by making something special for the people that are special to me.
I really like Phil´s way of keeping people up to date, by sending out his monthly "Flipper Chronicles". I don´t think that is something that would work for me at the moment, but I will keep it in mind for the future.
We must never forget, that our close "private-network" can very easily in some part become part of our professional network, so taking care of it or as they say in German "pflegen", to foster, nurse and nourish it, should not be underestimated.

I know many "young choreographers" who keep a stable network of dancers, assistants and photographers at hand, so that if they should need them for a project or a performance or so, they know, whom they can ask. The other day for example I read that a German theatre is looking for choreographers. So I quickly copied and pasted the link to a friend of mine, who I know is looking for work as a choreographer. Maybe a fine example, how a networked connection also works in both ways? (I have also participated in one of his projects.)

So now to come back to myself and my ideal professional network. I would really like to make my own web-site. One in order to promote my work as a photographer and another in order to sell myself as a choreographic assistant, assistant in general and as a dancer. I think having such a simple key in your hand is a wonderful thing, because you can spread the word quite easily and invite people to take a look behind your personal façade. I am secretly hoping to find time to do so after this module is finished and before the next one starts.
I would of course also like to take better care of my private network. There is always room for improvement and I am finding this course offering me many new alleys to maybe go down and further explore.

Well having said all of that..and having pulled my ears down to the floor (African Elephant Style)...I did try to build my own web-site this summer but was completely overwhelmed by the masses of raw-material I had accumulated. I need to plan ahead, make site-map and organize the material. I also have to be clear as to what and which aspect of myself I want to represent and whom the site is intended for.
I need to find the time to e-mail people. Sorting through my address books, compressing them to one and then making groups, so I can just send out a group e-mail once in a while would be a time-saving method.
I think I also need to be seen more again at certain theatre events. Not all, but some more. Again, self-reflection will help me find the right ones!
And here is another closing thought. We all started this course by learning about web 2.0. What it is about and how the sites are only as good as the people making use of them. I see a great parallel to professional networks there. (Actually to human-networks in general) The more we sow into a network the more we can one day harvest.