Stephen Barley - Stanford University
Gerd Meissner - Best selling author
Patrica Sachs - Business anthropologist
Ben Smith - CEO Spoke Software

Social networks are one of the most exciting new way of looking at business. What are social networks? A search on the Internet finds that IBM mentions them for knowledge management and the World Bank for ending poverty. They are important for innovation, for sales, for management, personal growth maket research and more. What is happening? Is this The Next Big Thing?

Recently there have been a number of articles on "social networking" which refers to some new software companies. Social networks are much much more than that. Don't miss the opportunity to get a handle on what is happening.

Find out how social networks affect you, your organization and your future, have a great dinner, and meet interesting people.

OUR PANELISTS

Stephen Barley - Stanford University:

Stephen R. Barley is the Charles M. Pigott Professor of Management Science and Engineering and the Co- Director of the Center for Work, Technology and Organiz ation at Stanford's School of Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. in Organization Stu dies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to coming to Stanfor d in 1994, Barley served for ten years on the faculty of the School of Industri al and Labor Relations at Cornell University. He was editor of the Administrati ve Science Quarterly from 1993 to 1997 and has served on the editorial boards o f Academy of Management Journal, The Journal of Management Studies and Organiza tion Science. He has been the recipient the Academy of Management's New Concept Award. Barley was a member of the Board of Senior Scholars of the National Cen ter for the Educational Quality of the Workforce and co-chaired National Resear ch Council and the National Academy of Science's committee on the changing occu pational structure in the United States. The committee's report, The Changing N ature of Work, was published in 1999. Barley teaches courses on the management of R&D, the organizational implications of technological change, organizational behavior, social network analysis and ethnographic field methods. He has writt en extensively on the impact of new technologies on work, the organization of t echnical work and organizational culture. He edited a volume on technical work entitled Between Craft and Science: Technical Work in the United States publish ed in 1997 by the Cornell University Press. Barley is currently working on a mu lti-pronged study of contingent work among engineers and software developers in the Silicon Valley. He has served as a consultant to organizations in a variet y of industries including publishing, banking, computers, electronics and aeros pace.

Gerd Meissner:

Founder/owner of the GERMANY-USA Services Directory & Career Center (which grew from a social network, the "Silicon Valley for Germans" roundtable/list), co-founder of the "German American Commerce Club Silicon Valley", President-elect of the University Rotary Club Palo Alto/Stanford (2004/2005).

Active participant in several "social networks", including the general aviation/pilots community. Gerd has been a senior editor and contributor to publications/broadcast systems like The New York Times, Der Spiegel and Stern (Germany), El Pais (Spain), Le Monde (France), La Republica (Italy), ABC, BBC and CNN, "Corporate Meetings & Incentives" and "Technology Meetings", and book author of the best-seller "SAP - Inside a Secret Software Power" (McGraw-Hill, 2000).

Patrica Sachs - CEO Social Solutions:

Patricia (Pascha) Sachs is a professional anthropologist focusing on work, lear ning, and technology. She directs her attention on the way knowledge is generat ed and how it operates in everyday work systems.

Founder and C.E.O of Social Solutions, Dr. Sachs was formerly Founder and Direc tor of the Work Systems Design Group at Nynex Science and Technology, and Senio r Research Scientist at the Institute for Research Learning, where she was the director of Workplace Practice Group. She co-holds two patents on ðholistic mod eling,Ó of which one, ðBrahmsÓ is currently under development at NASA.

Patricia holds a Ph. D. in economic anthropology, and conducted post-doctoral w ork in developmental and cognitive psychology. She is co-author of two policy r eports for the federal government. Her work has been reported in Fast Company, Business Week, Scientific American, Wired, The Washington Post, and The Portugu ese Executive Digest.

Ben Smith - CEO Spoke Software:

Mr. Smith brings over 12 years of management consulting and industry experience to the Spoke team. He recently returned from a post-9/11 appointment to serve the White House as Senior Advisor - Strategy and Planning - to the Secretary of Transportation for homeland security issues. Immediately prior to his work in Washington, in his role as a Vice President in EDS's A.T. Kearney management co nsulting subsidiary, Mr. Smith led the West Coast operations of the Kearney/EDS Venture Development Group. Mr. Smith has advised leading technology and indust rial companies on the definition of business and marketing strategies, development and implementation of channel strategies, and sales acceleration. In additi on, he helped create and implement the solution sales process and organization framework used by a number of the largest technology companies in the world. Mr. Smith was recently recognized by Consulting News as one of the top 25 consultants in the world. Mr. Smith has also been interim SVP of Sales and Marketing for a $150M logistics services company and CEO of a 60 person Upside 100 softwar e company. Ben began his career in engineering at IBM and consulting at Ernst and Young. Mr. Smith is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's Graduate School of Industrial Administration and received a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Davis.

Don Steiny - Organizer and Moderator:

Don is no lightweight in the social network arena. He cofounded CCAN, and recentely cofounded the Institute for Social Network Analysis of the Economy. He has been studying SNA for several years and is currently working on several SNA related projects.

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