Bob Rosner has some...advice...for people who are shy but want to start networking to get their dream vocation. I have the same problem with networking that I do with phone calls: I hate initiating because I think not only that I'm interrupting people, but that they care that I'm interrupting them. With social network software, it becomes less of an interruption because notifications or messages generally happen either by email (which people have to check to receive) or on the websites. If they get the notification on the website, then it's not interrupting anything, since that's what they're there for. I've been sticking with Orkut because it puts a face to people I know in an online context and because I have more friends on it than on the previous social software apps I've tried.
I'm still skeptical about the ability of social software to promote actual socializing, since it doesn't really encourage people to get out of the house or office and meet up for an event. I have more faith in websites like Meetup and Upcoming, which are designed specifically to help organize people to meet physically because of similar interests.
On another note: I found that networking for shy people article quite by accident while looking at job postings. Remember when the web was about finding interesting things by accident, rather than having them delivered to you through syndicated feeds?
