making communities visible

There are generally around 40 people waiting at any given time to join our LinkedIn group, which is not really a surprise given that we have over a thousand members in a high tech community that employs over 40,000 people. Admission to the group is limited to those who are currently in one of the member organizations, and can prove this with an e-mail address from their domain. Unfortunately, most applicants do not use their corporate e-mail address on their LinkedIn account and haven't kept their latest employment up to date, so we often have to go back and ask for proof that they are indeed currently in one of the members and wait until it is provided.

This week, an applicant responded to this request for proof from their corporate e-mail declining to update their LinkedIn profile to show their current affiliation on their profile but saying they still wanted to get into the group. After a few friendly interchanges we declined to let her in, on the basis that everyone else was showing their affiliation and the group is meant to be a complement to our programme of events, news and job postings, helping people connect directly to others who have a similar level of commitment to helping Cambridge ideas change the world.

According to Wikipedia, community is a word derived from Latin "communitas": "com" - with/together, "munitas" - gift. Most groups on social media are free-for-alls, and the greater the anonymity of the participants, the stranger the behaviour seems to get. In our meetings, people are asked to state their affiliation when they ask a question, to help the presenter frame their answer. People wear badges that show who they work for, and have to give some background when they register to attend a session. This makes the sessions productive for those who commit the time to do more than browse through the latest newsletter.

If you're interested, there are lots of opportunities to give your time together with like-minded souls coming up:

15th September: "Going public - communicating to the markets and stakeholders" with London Stock Exchange and The Design Portfolio. Attendees include Finance Directors from Amdeo, Biotica, Breathing Buildings, Cambridge Consultants, CamCon, DBA, Deloitte, Hypertag, IP.Access, LMK Thermosafe, Lectus Therapeutics, Mills & Reeve, Nujira, Plastic Logic, RealVNC, Sagentia, St Johns, Ubisense, Unilever, and Xaar.

17th September: Making the Most of Membership meeting to explain the way to use membership to full advantage, for existing members and those considering joining. Attendees include AC Integration, Adder, Adept Scientific, AMI Software, Cambridge Science Park, Crescendo Biologics, Crucible, Curtiss-Wright, GTK UK, Humanitarian Centre, IP Asset, Kerio Technologies, Kesteven Law, Medimmune, Napp Pharma, Partnertech, Riverlite, Signify, ThermoFisher Scientific, Toby Churchill, University  of Cambridge and around ten companies considering membership.

24th September: Café Networking for recruitment with presentations from ARM, Cambridge Silicon Radio, RealVNC, Red Gate, TTP, and Velocix. Audience is mostly technology job-seekers but other hi-techs coming include Cambridge Broadband, Wellcome Trust, University of Cambridge amongst others.

27th September: Smart Grid Cleantech. AlertMe, ARM, Rockport Capital, TTP presenting on Smart Grid with pitches from Amiho, Energy Reducing Products, Sentec. Attendees include Bowller Solar Energy, Cambridge Design Partnership, Cambridge Industrial Design, Ember, Fen Technology, GE Energy, Grant Instruments, HLBB Shaw, Intrasonics, Marks & Clark, Partnertech, Philips, Prism Electronics, Polatis, PolySolar, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Samsung Semiconductor, Taylor Wessing, University of Cambridge, Venner Shipley, Wysing Arts amongst others.

30th September: Working with the approvals process from NICE, with presentations from NICE, MedImmune and Trig1. Attendees include Addenbrookes, BSI Product Services, Cambridge Temperature Concepts, CGC, Ergomed Clinical Research, Illumina, Ithaka, Lumie, Medical Device Technology, Napp, NHS East of England, PA Consulting, Panchromos, Product Partners, Team Consulting, Tigenix, Tristam Consultants, University of Cambridge amongst others.

14th October: Health and vitality for consumers. P&G, Cambridge Consultants, HealthUnlocked, & Sonovia are talking, attendance includes Cambridge Design Partnership, Cambridge Temperature Concepts, Domino, eg Technology, Hidalgo, Innovia, Linx, Lumie, Marks & Clerk, NHS East of England, Nokia, Philips, Plarion, Sagentia, Team Consulting, Think Product Design, Tigenix, Toby Churchill, TTP, University of Cambridge amongst others.

20th - 22nd October: Corporate Gateway. Corporate innovation scouts from Dow Chemicals, Philips, Reckitt Beckiser, Shell so far booked in to come and have one-to-one meetings with local companies in their specific areas of interest over two days.

We're delighted that our website is hit over 10,000 times a day by people curious about Cambridge and trying to find a way in. But all that is driven by the commitment of our members to come out and tell their story and hear others. Look forward to seeing you soon.

Comments

[Laura James]

If you are carefully checking applicants for the group, presumably to maintain quality of the network in some way, do you also review existing members to spot those who have moved on from Network companies, and remove them?

[Matt Schofield]

We do ask people who've changed company or not renewed their membership if they want to become Members, particularly if they are actively spam posting to the group!