Eight Data Mining Social Networking Groups

 
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Networking is an essential part of career management for any professional.  The relationships we develop can have great impact on our career direction and growth.  I tell young professionals all the time that their best asset in career growth is their professional network.  I tell them to start early and maintain the network continually.  The advent of LinkedIn and other internet social networking sites has made that task easier.

Vincent Granville at AnalyticBridge.com has compiled a list of 8 data mining social networking groups with more than 2000 members.  These groups are easy to become as member as all of them are associated with LinkedIn.  If anyone is finding anyone in the data mining community more than likely they will be a member in these groups.

I have found a couple of different jobs through LinkedIn in the past.  I have found hiring managers as well as peers that I would be potentially working with closely.  I found that to be a great benefit before the interview process.  In fact I even would contact some of the peers in the group to get a pre-interview idea of where I was working and the idiosyncrasies of the organization.  The important thing is using your professional network to maximize your career productivity.

OR-Exchange confession

I have a blogger confession to make about OR-Exchange. I am addicted. I think its the first Operations Research related social network that has me really hooked. I confess that I check it daily. Yes you can see that I've earned a silver badge for my continual obedience. Is this OR's Farmville? Well at least it is for me.

The premise for OR-Exchange is really simple. Think of an Operations Research related question that bugs you, puzzles you, or simply just want to get peer feedback. Shortly after, and I mean shortly, you will be barraged by answers from like minded individuals. The perfect storm that the Web 2.0 wants to fuel.

In my mind the beauty of OR-Exchange is that it is not any normal social network. This is a social network of peers that understand my issues, problems and concerns. Maybe its just my Generation X upbringing that requires instant gratification. Yet I don't need a whole lot of stimulating from other social networks. In fact I'm pretty much done with most of the others. The online media I keep going back to are the ones associated with my interests and for me that is OR-Exchange right now.

I love the feedback from the folks at OR-Exchange. Good, bad or indifferent it brings perspectives that I often don't get in my circles. In my present work I don't often get to chat up Operations Research with my co-workers. I'm one of two employees that has any knowledge of what is Operations Research. I guess that's where it benefits me. I'm hoping that it benefits others like us that either has to wait a year to go to an INFORMS conference. I am active in my local INFORMS Chapter but most of it is topical speeches and programs. OR-Exchange is more of an outlet which has filled a void for me.

I hope the Operations Research community can take on to OR-Exchange. I believe there can be only more good as more users come online. Please help preach its worth if you are using it. Perhaps there are many more unanswered questions in the Operations Research community.

Social Networks and Operations Research

Based on a request from a blog reader Michael Trick has set up the OR-Exchange as a social networking way to get Operations Research related questions and answers. It is an experiment to see if it would be beneficial to the Operations Research community. For those of us that have used the common Usenet groups in the past we have recently seen it degrade into a chasm of spam. Hopefully with these new networking sites this will help remedy that networking need in the Operations Research community.

On another note Analytic Bridge and LinkedIn is also a very good networking and discussion social networking tool. There are many "Groups" that one can join at LinkedIn to join with common Operations Research interests. Here are links to the following social networking sites devoted to all things Operations Research.

LinkedIn INFORMS group

LinkedIn DataShaping Advanved Analytics group

Analytic Bridge