My big brother is the CEO of a company called Iotum.  His product routes telephone calls based on the revelance of that call in the situation you are in.  They recently created a service called Talk-Now.

"Check out iotum Talk-Now, the revolutionary New Presence application that lets you see at a glance who is available to talk, be notified when the people you need to speak with become available, and share your availability to talk with others."

Alec chose to upload his video to multiple video channels and decided that REVVER provided the best quality video.  He wrote reviews of the different services on his Blog.

The business of grants is all about relationships.  Grantmaking networks are a variation on the social network.

Last week I was in Great Falls Montana and today I was in Salt Lake City.  In both cases I was intersecting with individuals who are interested in TourWest--WESTAF's grant program. 

In Montana, they have developed a culture of co-operative block booking--the activity of several presenters working together to bring in an artist or artists who then tour from place to place.  Often block booking is the only way to get a high profile performer to come to your community.  These block booking networks are social networks that rely on one another to resell product--the show. 

I just got tagged by my brother Alec in a game of blogger tag, via Jeff Pulver.

Many bloggers are known by their blogs. That "knowledge" might be wide, but tends to NOT be deep.

So the game works like this, publish five little known facts about yourself, and then tag five of your blogger pals to participate.

1) I worked in a beer and wine shop called Vintage Cellar. It was my first job after applying for a green card and the first job I could hold outside of my work with Virginia Tech. I walked in and just asked if they were hiring--and they were. Prior to working a Vintage Cellar I had dabbled with home-brewing (which is the reason they hired me). I learned a prodigious amount about wine from Randall. While working at Vintage Cellar, I became a Belgian Beer aficiando--which eventually helped my wife and I decide to take a trip to Belgium.

I am trying out a service recommended by my friend Beth Kanter. She tells me that traffic to her site has increased significantly since starting to use the service.

My traffic has been fairly healthy, but pretty flat. It would be nice to tap into a new market.

MyBlogLog allows sets up the top links on your site, track traffic, join communities. It is essentially a social network of bloggers.

We'll see how it impacts my traffic. Thanks for the tip Beth!