David Kirkpatrick from Fortune has written an article called "I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends of Friends of Friends" that is a look at the emerging social networking space. It's a well written piece that does a great job of explaining the current social networking space for a mainstream business audience.

I also happen to be one of the people that is quoted in the article. David ran across my blog entry on Social Networking and that's how the quote ended up in Fortune. Interestingly enough, it also turned out that David and I are connected by two via a very well connected mutual friend. It would have been a better story if we connected via one of the social networking sites and ended up striking up a conversation on our mutual interest in social networking. The fact that it happened the good old fashioned way via web surfing and email indicates that the potential for Social Networking is there but it's still in the early stages.

The whole experience has left me with a greater appreciation of the ability of blogs to spread ideas and discussions on current topics in near real-time. Blogging tools such as trackbacks, RSS feeds, and blogging search engines now make it much easier to track new ideas and take a pulse on current topics. If you think about it, it is amazing how technology such as blogging, social networking, and the internet are really bringing us all closer and allowing us to interact with greater efficiency and with greater impact than ever before. It makes you wonder how you lived without the internet.