how to make dorky friends in KM

I was put on a list serv that deals with value networks (link here if you actually want to know what that is - i'm alienated by most of the literature about it, mostly because the anthropologist in me HATES the assumptions and the methodologies....but I digress oh so boringly). Which means that I get even more distracting email. But what was proving increasingly frustrating about this list serv was the fact that a significant amount of the mail was personal or private messages being sent inappropriately to the entire list. Folks clearly didn't understand how to use the oh-so-complex "reply to" functionality. So some boring post about using the Zachman model to analyze networks would get response posts like "hey eric, are you going to brain trust? i'd love to catch up and here's what happening at datamine. i'm working on a paper for KM review - maybe you could take a look?" So I finally snarked out and send a note to the list registering my surprize at the fact that so many folks were broadcasting their social plans, and noting that it was hard to take folks seriously as KM professionals if they didn't understand how to use email correctly. I got one great response back - to the list, of course - suggesting that I reconfigure my list serve preferences to receive one summary a day. I wrote back to the dude - personally - and pointed out that the problem was not the number of emails, but the content within them, and of course got a note back saying basically "wow, i had no idea that i had even sent that configuration note to the whole list! thanks!"

But more to the point of this blog, I got two invitiations to join other virtual KM communities. Which demonstrates that if you simply make it known publicly that you are not a raving idiot, people will invite you to their parties. Dorky parties, I'll grant you. But the only parties out there in the KM zone.