This is a very belated post. Last month I dragged my exhausted jet-lagged ass to the Social Recruiting Summit in Minneapolis, USA. It took me 5 flights to get to Minneapolis and over 20 hours of flying time - it was partly my fault as I decided to travel the less direct route from New Zealand via Australia to the USA. I just want to confirm that NZ is nowhere near France or England or somewhere in the USA - I had to point this out to a few summit attendees. This is the third Social Recruiting Summit. I attended the first summit at the Googleplex in the Silicon Valley last year, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The tweet-up prior to the conference took place at a bar / restaurant inside the crazily super-sized Mall of America - take a right past the indoor theme park, then a left past the wedding chapel, go up to the third floor, and then walk for a thousand miles to the meeting point. The night ended with beers, margaritas, and an array of Mexican fare at a Karaoke joint inside the Mall. I’m slowly recovering my hearing.

The next morning I shared a cab with the other foreign alien, UK’s Matt Alder to Best Buy’s corporate HQ.  For those of you outside of the US, Best Buy is a leading retailer of consumer electronics in North America, with a strong online presence. On entering the modern building I wondered if I had come to the wrong place. Was I on a university campus or at an airport? How many reception areas have a mobile popcorn stand?

We all congregated in the auditorium and the first session kicked off, not with a presentation, but with a 4-member, social media savvy panel from Best Buy. 

I picked up that Best Buy has a genuine interest in being “social” - they weren’t so bothered with the tools or the media, but with how to leverage the social web to engage with consumers and jobseekers. Best Buy has already done some interesting things in the social recruiting space (eg crowdsourcing job description design; webinars on their finance recruitment blog) and it was interesting to hear of some of their success stories and where they plan to take things. They are currently scoping up a job description for a store-level role titled Social Media Concierge. I’m picturing a future world of store-specific Twitter accounts, localized Facebook fan pages, and Foursquare customer loyalty campaigns.

Throughout the rest of the day I attended a variety of presentations, and had some great one-on-one chats between sessions, like with Richard Cho, lead recruiter at Facebook (who later gave a very insightful presentation). I also had an opportunity to mix with and learn from recruitment leaders from companies like AT&T, Microsoft, Google, Starbucks etc. I took heaps of notes during the day and hijacked my followers’ personal twitter streams with many sweet morsels. Below are some of the many quotes I scribbled down:

• “Don’t vomit your jobs all over the place” (referring mainly to Twitter)
• “Find a lawyer with a Twitter account to remove social media roadblocks”
• “Return on Emotion” (not used in a Daniel Pink or employer branding context, but certainly could be)
• “Why am I going to spend 55 minutes on a site, Facebook page etc?” (referring to increasing site / platform user stickiness)
• “We don’t buy friends with discounts, we buy friends with value”
• “Tell message to people who have the strongest influence”
• “Referrals to website increased by  910% in 2 months”
• “Facebook’s fastest growing demographic is female, 35 years and over” (must be all the addicted FarmVille players contributing to this me thinks).

Though the Americans are grappling with many of the same issues as we are in the Asia Pacific region, I get a sense that social recruiting is fast becoming mainstream in the US.  Some employers were reporting mind-blowing results. Listening to the discussions challenged my thinking around who should manage things like Facebook fan pages. I can sense there will be some very innovative and quite different approaches to social recruiting and employment branding, and how it is managed, in the not too distant future. Many of the small to medium businesses were definitely keen to follow the large corporates, but were hungry for guidance on how to best lobby internally. 

Though I gained lots from the summit, I felt the event could have been more cohesive overall. This may just be a personal preference, but some of the sessions seemed a bit out of place to me and were more about personal branding than social recruiting per se. I would have liked to have heard about topics such as social gaming and mobile recruiting, and some of the social media innovations outside of the recruitment industry and how these could be applied to recruitment. There still seems to be differing views on what social recruiting actually is, and I feel this needs to be sorted somewhat. We often hear the same messages coming from the same presenters, and I don’t know if that is necessarily a good thing for the recruitment industry. I feel some of the excitement and enthusiasm that I sensed at the initial summit at Google has faded. Many attendees have since been to numerous social recruiting related conferences and unconferences in their own city, state, or industry sector in which they recruit. Then there is the group of attendees who attend pretty much everything that’s on. With pretty much every conference and unconference touching on social recruiting, the Social Recruiting Summit could potentially lose its significance. I would have liked the summit to have painted more of a picture of the overall current state or landscape of social recruiting.

After the summit I played tourist and met up with some great people like Gerry Crispin in Hoboken, New Jersey. Gerry is passionate about HR and recruitment outside of the US and we came up with an idea around shared learning between NZ and the US - stay tuned for details. Now, see that cannon above? Gerry in his student days, with some of his uni mates, took this historically significant cannon at the Stevens Institute of Technology, on a sojourn to outside City Hall in Manhattan, across the Hudson River and all. Luckily Gerry escaped getting into trouble. What a legend though. The cannon is now cemented down. Love this man’s renegade roots.

I’m now back in a wintery NZ. Thankfully, I piled on an extra layer of insulating fat in the US, eating enormous portions. NB: a “short stack” of pancakes can feed a family. I enjoyed my trip to the US and have come back with some great ideas, some of which I’ve been putting into practice with clients.

Paul Jacobs
Engage

Engage client, Deloitte New Zealand has received another accolade for their social media strategy. This time, Your Future at Deloitte (New Zealand) was recognised as one of the Top 40 Fan Pages on Facebook.

Paul Jacobs
Engage

Deloitte NZ won the award for their Facebook page, which is geared towards graduate and intern recruitment. The company broke new ground by mashing live-streaming video with social networking, directly on their Facebook page. This ’social videoing’ technique has been successfully used by celebrities like Shakira and Miley Cyrus to engage with their fan bases.

Since launching in late 2009, the page has hosted 10 live and interactive shows. Prospective recruits were able to watch and listen on Facebook as graduates from a range of teams and locations gave impromptu talks on their experiences and impressions. The shows involved both groups of graduates and individuals, and fans were able to type questions into the Facebook page and get answers during the course of each show.

The shows are part of a wider strategy to humanise the Deloitte NZ brand, offer authentic experiences for prospective graduates, and differentiate the company from other firms. Other initiatives include graduates blogging about life at Deloitte NZ.

Deloitte NZ’s social recruiting initiatives have created greater awareness of the firm among propsective graduates. Richard Long reports that students attending careers and networking events appear to be better informed and more familiar with the company, and the opportunities available. Deloitte NZ are very happy with the quality and number of applications received this year.

All up, this is a win for a Southern Hemisphere company and an example of social recruiting in action.

To keep up to date with the evolution of this page, you can follow Deloitte NZ on Twitter (@deloittegradsnz).

Paul Jacobs
Engage

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. What would happen if an A-list celebrity’s manager was hired to run a corporate recruitment function? Take a few minutes to think about this, then keep scrolling down …

I surmise employer branding would be high on the new manager’s agenda. They would try and communicate the company’s unique brand (think: Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, or George Clooney). They would want their company to be a star. They would have visions of crazed jobseekers (fans) running towards the company (think: The Beatles arrive in the USA, Elvis). And they’d desire to reach and win over the hearts and minds of new fans (jobseekers) and continue to feed the connection (or addictions) of their current community of fans.

As they do a scan of the current state, they would likely note:

• the company logo appears to be the only real differentiator between their company and its competitors - similar look and messages, different logos.
• the employee value propositions and brand statements don’t connect emotionally with fans.
• lots of static content and little of anything that actually encourages social engagement with the brand.
• company employees, the corporate recruitment team and external recruitment partners do not appear to be fans of the company or the employment brand, let alone act as brand champions or motivated referral agents.
• fans are lost deep in the database and long ago drowned in the company’s talent pool.
• little initiatives have made it from the lengthy and outdated strategy documents to the pilot or implementation phase.

The manager wouldn’t muck around. They’d be action-oriented. They would likely block out the next day, and get all key parties and a cross-section of stakeholders together in one room (not necessarily at the same time) and start a process of discovery. There would be lots of questions and lots of follow-up probing. Some of the questions asked would be:

• Why would someone work here versus XYZ company? (probably asking some recently hired fans).
• Are we able to deliver on our brand promises? (NB, even stars have their flaws).
• What do our existing EVPs really mean? Does ‘teamwork’ for example really tap into our fans’ motivational drivers, or is there something deeper - like a sense of belonging, having fun with colleagues, the desire for creative expression involved in developing new ideas as a team?
• How do we communicate our aspirational story? Do we need to show this as lengthy written statements or bullet points? (think: Apple). What’s our one key message? (think: Coca Cola’s ‘Open happiness’). Should we be creating an experience - letting fans interact with our brand and culture, rather than us telling them about it?
• Who are our fans, what is their demographic? Where do they hang out? How do they like to communicate? How should we, as stars, communicate with them? (one-way? two-way? openly? authentically?)
• How are we going to grow our fan-base?
• Do our recruiters (let’s call them DJs) want to step into the limelight - are they ready for the star lifestyle and associated hard work and support required?
• How will we create a recruitment experience where fans (even our unsuccessful applicants) want to be brand advocates and enlist their colleagues as fans?

A week later, the new manager would likely launch a unique employer brand that fans go crazy for, and a series of gigs and appearances. We would also likely see a few real life examples of social recruiting. Miley Cryus and her live-streaming shows on Facebook were the inspiration for Deloitte New Zealand.

Could we, as HR / recruitment professionals, learn from the entertainment industry? What other industries could we learn from?

Paul Jacobs
Engage

I’m pleased my client Deloitte New Zealand is receiving global recognition for their use of social video on their Facebook graduate fan page. Take a look at this write-up - I’m grateful for the mention from my client.

It is also great to watch the strategy develop. Check out the ((Faces)) tab. More initiatives / features will be coming soon.

Paul Jacobs
Engage

My client, Deloitte New Zealand is breaking new ground, with a plan to join the likes of Shakira, Miley Cyrus and KISS in mashing live-streaming video with social networking. Fans of the Your Future at Deloitte (New Zealand) Facebook page will be able to watch and listen on Facebook to graduate recruits in the Consulting team, as they talk about their experiences and impressions. Better still, the student audience will be able to type in any questions for the team.

Deloitte is trying to show its human face and engage with potential summer interns and graduates. Technology provides options and opportunities to increase engagement with a jobseeker audience. Students have career choices, and these types of initiatives serve to help students get to know the firm, interact, ask questions, and be better informed about Deloitte as a career destination.

The live and interactive event will take place 4-4.30pm on Thursday 21 January 2010.

Deloitte New Zealand’s Facebook page launched in October and we will be rolling out further initiatives on the page in the coming weeks and months. To keep up to date with the evolution of this page, you can follow Deloitte on Twitter (@deloittegradsnz).

Facebook membership continues to grow, reaching the 350 million member milestone this week. New Zealand Facebook membership is over 1.1 million, with about 30 percent in the typical graduate age demographic (source: checkfacebook.com).

Paul Jacobs
Engage

Link: http://jobs.nzpost.co.nz/

When a major employer within the Asia Pacific region refreshes their careers site, it’s worth taking a look. At first look I was really impressed with the strong branding - it feels fresh, modern and human to me. The site also showcases the diversity of roles, supported by video. OK, this is reading like an informercial. I must admit I have a soft spot for Post as I’m an ex-Poster, working in their HR team around 15 years ago.

As I delve further into the site, here are some other thoughts from me:

I haven’t been privy to the strategising behind the site and the future plans, so my impressions may be a bit presumptuous. Nonetheless, I congratulate Post on a job well done!

What are your thoughts?

Paul Jacobs
Engage

PS: Please feel free to share any careers sites that you particularly like.

Originally posted on Recruitment 2.0 Asia Pacific

Deloitte NZ has launched a branded Facebook page, Your Future at Deloitte (New Zealand), to enable graduates and summer interns to get a glimpse into the Deloitte culture, engage directly with Deloitte, and gain the inside running on news and upcoming career events. Engage worked closely with Deloitte to develop and implement the page. To keep up to date with the evolution of this page, you can follow Deloitte on Twitter (@deloittegradsnz).

Employers should consider Facebook as a platform to use in their recruitment and employer branding efforts. Facebook membership continues to grow (watch in real time), reaching the 300 million member milestone last month. The New Zealand audience is over 1.1 million, with about 30 percent in the typical graduate age demographic (source: checkfacebook.com).

Paul Jacobs
Engage

Engage is excited to offer a new and very unique service to New Zealand employers.

Deepsearch is all about sourcing talent on the social web. We do not advertise vacancies in newspapers or on job boards. We’re out there mining online social networks. We’re tapping into niche communities, industry and referral networks, LinkedIn, Facebook, TribeHQ, Twitter, Ning, etc. We’re going where recruitment agencies don’t typically reach. We’re not interested in fighting over the low-lying fruit. We’re using different tools, technologies and approaches to find the pockets of talent our clients are yet to uncover.

Employers should seriously consider DeepSearch if they want to reach the largely untapped passive job seeker market, or if they have exhausted traditional means and want to widen their talent sources, locally and globally.

Paul Jacobs
Engage

The term ‘social recruiting’ is soooooo hot right now. It’s on the lips of recruitment commentators, consultants, recruiters, and vendors. There is even a global wave of conferences and seminars on the topic.

So what does social recruiting mean? Well, from my observations, it means a myriad of things to different people. To many recruiters it means LinkedIn. To others it means any opportunity to post or syndicate jobs on a popular social networking platform. For some it means hash tags on Twitter. For others it means a range of words beginning with the letter ‘C’ (eg conversation, community, collaboration). For others it is a mix of concepts, approaches and technology tools. I even know one person who thinks social recruiting has something to do with socialism and Karl Marx.

I sometimes hear people emphasize the point that recruitment has always been social. True, it’s about interacting with people, human to human communication (as per various definitions of social). Picking up the phone and talking with a candidate is social. I don’t believe social recruiting implies recruitment used to be, or is today, necessarily unsocial.

So what is it then? To me, at the simplest, barest bones level social recruiting is “recruitment using the social web”. This obviously needs further explanation. In early 2009 Riges Younan gave the following definition:

“Social Recruiting harnesses the evolution of Web 2.0 technologies and social media tools to communicate, engage, inform and recruit our future talent.”

It wasn’t that long ago that our web communication experiences were controlled centrally and information was predominantly one-way, static and read-only. In recent years we’ve seen a range of social networking platforms and social media tools (eg wikis, blogs, micro-blogs, online video sharing) emerge. The term Web 2.0, unveiled to the world in 2004, was intended to capture not only the emergence of these new technologies and platforms, but more importantly focus on how they give people new ways of expressing themselves and interacting with others. These technologies are trickling into the corporate world, as more and more employers are using them to collaborate on projects and converse with employees, consumers and job seekers. In a recruitment and employment branding context, social technologies enable recruiters to reach and engage with active and passive jobseekers, tap directly into niche talent communities and their wider connections, and reach a broader geographical audience.

In an attempt to arrive at my own definition of social recruiting, I weighed up a number of considerations. To me, ‘social’ is about engagement. I like to think of the analogy of going to a social event, where you are meeting a group of people for the first time. Would you walk through the door and shout “Hey everyone, it’s me, and do I have an offer for you all”? Not likely. Neither would you go and stand in the corner, face the wall and not engage with anybody. You would probably introduce yourself to someone or a small group. You would try and establish some rapport and find some affinity and commonality. Social recruiting in this context is about showing up where the party is and then starting the process, ideally in real-time, of exploration and conversation between recruiter and job seeker. Authenticity of message and openness are vitally important. It is a bit like dating; a job seeker needs to understand the employer’s unique personality and feel like there is a good match to further the courting process.

The meaning of ‘social’ is a key determining factor for me. If a job board or recruiter, for example, syndicates their vacancies on a social networking site, is that social and is it social recruiting? To me it’s not necessarily a yes for either. Granted, the vacancies may be targeted to a niche community, but without some level of engagement I struggle to think where the ‘social’ is. It may lead to the receipt of candidate applications (by email or via a corporate careers site) and face-to-face interviews, but this will most likely be conducted outside a social web context. Likewise, consider the situation where an employer places a creative banner ad or video on a social networking platform, which engenders an emotional connection with a job seeker, and leads the job seeker to click through to a static careers site. Some level of social media and social networking was used in the process, but is it really social recruiting? I’m not convinced. In contrast, consider the following two scenarios: crowdsourcing the design of a job description and having an active Q&A blog on your corporate careers site. I think both qualify as social recruiting.

The tools are out there for recruiters to create a social experience on the web. To build a highly engaging experience around an employer or vacancy, recruiters could, for example, use any number of applications and platforms to mash up an event that includes live-streaming video with micro-blogging. There is also life beyond one’s favorite social networking platform for recruitment. Other options and target communities do exist. We are not really limited by the technology anymore, but rather by our own imaginations.

Taking our existing recruitment processes and tools and linking them with social recruiting is not necessarily the road to social recruiting. Instead, perhaps more of us need to blow up our current recruitment models and processes and think social. As an industry we need more pioneers, more social revolutionaries. Just because we have always done things one way, does not mean it is the best or only way. Social recruiting is about experimentation and opportunity. At the same time, we need to recognize that job seekers are in the public eye and respect their privacy.

Below is my work-in-progress definition of social recruiting. It will evolve, mostly via conversations and debates with others.

“Social Recruiting is delivering sound hiring decisions by actively using web-based technologies to build a shared understanding between employers / recruiters and passive and active job seekers.”

Your thoughts?

Paul Jacobs

I read a book recently by Jeff Howe called Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business. Howe coined the term ‘crowdsourcing‘ in June 2006 in a Wired article to describe the process by which the power of the many can be leveraged to accomplish feats that were once the territory of a specialized few. He adds that the crowd is more than wise—it’s talented, creative, and stunningly productive. The concept of collective intelligence has been around for a while, but with the advent of Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies it is even easier to reach and engage with large and geographically diverse audiences (inside and outside a company). The following sites (eg, eg, eg) often feature when commentators talk about crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing isn’t just about getting feedback from a group; it involves relinquishing power and getting the community involved in design.

This book got me thinking about the potential evolution of HR and recruitment. Howe dedicated a chapter to thinking about a ‘company as a community’. This is a major mind shift. Most HR and recruitment strategizing and design takes place in isolation, within the HR function, and sometimes in consultation with others (eg senior management, marketing, IT, external specialists, vendors, customers). Instead, why not crowdsource it? Invite the wider community of employees, managers, jobseekers, and third-party recruitment agencies to help develop the company’s employee value propositions (EVPs), employer brand, recruitment charter, etc. Use wikis, micro-blogs, blogs, social networking sites, polls, etc to reach out and engage with the community in real time. The community will more likely buy into a shared, collectively-created vision. They will not only interact with the company’s brand, they will feel a sense of ownership, even if they don’t work there (yet).

Within the last couple of weeks, another recruitment application for crowdsourcing jumped from way out of left-field - thanks Joshua Kahn for alerting me to this. Best Buy crowdsourced the design of a job description. Check out the details here. I love how this has evolved, and enjoyed following the discussion around the ideal person specification. You have to admit this is all very counter-intuitive.

What are your thoughts on crowdsourcing in HR / recruitment? Will it affect the HR / recruitment profession? Should HR professionals become Community Managers DJs? What other applications are there for crowdsourcing? (eg, could we get the community to shortlist candidates rather than a recruitment panel or agency?)

Paul Jacobs

Yesterday I attended, along with about 225 other attendees, the inaugural Social Recruiting Summit at the Googleplex in Silicon Valley, USA.

Unlike other conferences I’ve been to in stuffy hotels and auditoriums, I was really looking forward to seeing the Google work environment. I’ve heard so much about their campus style workplace. More importantly, as a dog owner, I wanted to see a dog. This was an absolute must for me. Taking a dog to work is pretty much a foreign concept where I come from. I would’ve been gutted to have come all the way from New Zealand and been short changed.

Lazlo Bock, Google’s VP Human Resources welcomed us. Lazlo spoke briefly about Google’s work culture. Google have really thought hard on how to create an environment where people connect, interact, and have fun (yes fun!). Lazlo said innovation comes from these things.

I thought the line up of speakers were first class, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and engaging. I’m not going to summarize each session, but will make some overall observations:

• It appeared we were living the cultural things that Lazlo spoke about - quite possibly running the summit within Google contributed to that.
• I got just as much from the audience and the discussions as I did from the presenters.
• In addition to the presenters, many audience members are movers and shakers in the recruiting and social recruiting space too, so I enjoyed hearing their views. I’ve heard some concern about the knowledge level of some of the attendees, especially vendors, but my take on that is that people have different levels of knowledge and experience and we are all there to learn. Maybe there could be some sessions in future summits that are pitched clearly to different knowledge levels.
• I enjoyed being amongst peers that were open to the social recruiting concept. Nobody said “I just don’t get the point of social networking”.
• It was great to see supporting statistics, poll results etc to back up the presenters’ points. Some of the numbers presented shocked me and challenged my thinking.
• I felt more time could have been spent at the start of the day defining ‘social’. The terms community, collaboration, and conversation were mentioned, but some of the ideas presented throughout the day were not what I perceive as being ‘social’ or followed the 3 C’s.
• The term Community Manager was used a number of times. I hate that term. Maybe it’s just semantics, but it is more about enablement and giving power over to the community in my eyes, than ‘management’. One presenter said communities aren’t formed, they emerge. I believe community [managers] emerge too.
• I felt too many attendees were wedded firmly to LinkedIn as their one and only social recruiting tool. The enhancements to LinkedIn appear very useful for a recruiter and their growth is phenomenal (a new member every second), but I felt some people need to think more about their target demographic and ascertain where they hang out and how to engage with them. Maybe some people need to look at using a more blended approach. It’s OK to use Facebook, Twitter etc for branding purposes. I’m not so convinced there needed to be two sessions on LinkedIn.
• I found it ironic we were using Twitter to tweet during Reid Hoffman’s LinkedIn session. Why were we not using LinkedIn to do that?
• I agree 100% with a tweet from Master Burnett who was very disappointed with the number of recruiters who see social networking sites as just another place to post job ads.
• Loved the live tweets showing on the screen during Joshua’s session. On average, throughout all the sessions, a tweet using the hash tag #socialrecruiting went out every 15 seconds.
• I don’t really feel I picked up too much new knowledge overall - lots of little morsels instead. The session on mobile recruiting is all pretty new to me and has got me thinking about all the possibilities. I would like to develop some tools in that space. I believe employers need to start thinking about how to use smart phones for employment branding and recruitment beyond SMS / text campaigns.
• I think the summit organizers should consider making future summits two days in length. The day did seem a bit rushed between sessions and it was a very long day, especially when I was concentrating on making out what some people were saying with their strong accents. Maybe I need to get my ears tested!

I’m pleased I made the trip over to the summit. I thought the social events before and after the summit were exceptionally well organized. I probably got just as much from the networking as I did from the summit sessions.

I don’t feel the US recruitment audience is further advanced in this space than a New Zealand or Australian audience. In fact, we are doing some very innovative stuff downunder. The conference opportunities on recruitment and talent related topics though are heaps more in the US. And it’s a well oiled machine. I would like to see next year’s summit take place in New Zealand please!!!!!!

I’m happy and relieved to report that I saw 3 dogs, but because I signed an NDA I can’t report what the dogs looked like, or what breeds they were.

Paul Jacobs
Engage

TribeHQ, as reported on previously, has quietly entered its beta testing stage.  The development team are still adding core features, but want to get the concept out into the public domain so people can interact with the platform, and submit their thoughts, feedback and suggestions. 

To a recruiter audience, TribeHQ is a next generation job board.  It brings social networking to job seeking.  Employers list a vacancy and tap directly into a community of professionals within a defined occupational “tribe” (e.g. IT professionals, engineers, nurses, HR).  Tribe members are automatically presented with specific job vacancies, based on their career wishes, and can engage in conversation directly with employers.  TribeHQ brings interactivity to recruitment advertising.  It is a major shift away from the directory-board and static approach, and reduces the noise and clutter inherent in existing job advertising.  For more information about TribeHQ click here, here and here.

Please check out TribeHQ and leave your comments via the Feedback facility on the site.  The development team have found all visitor comments to be valuable and many suggestions will be implemented.

Paul Jacobs
Engage (& Co-founder TribeHQ)

The NZ Recruitment 2.0 online community, established in April 2006, has widened its breadth to include other countries in the Asia Pacific region. There’s a lot of interesting stuff happening in the region, and Recruitment 2.0 Asia Pacific should benefit New Zealand members and those members not too far from NZ’s shores.  The Australians could learn from Kiwis and vice-versa, and both can benefit from others further afield through networking and sharing of knowledge and experiences.

The community has nearly 300 members and this will likely grow as members from outside NZ join the fray.  However, like any community, the value will be in the kinship, networking, participation and discussion between members.

Paul Jacobs
Engage