Less than a year after launching UPworld.com--a professional networking community for the real estate, architecture and construction industries--the site has more than 2,000 members. Magee, an architect and real estate development consultant, and Clancy, an architect and urban designer, base their success largely on timing.

"Just a year or two ago, the idea of on-line networking would have met fierce resistance from professionals who generally associated it with teenage chat rooms," explains Magee, the firm's CEO. "However, the new generation now entering the worlds of investment banking, real estate, design, construction and engineering is as familiar and comfortable with social networking as the previous generation is with e-mail." As Clancy, UPworld's creative director, notes, "They have no qualms about developing relationships on-line and take advantage of the opportunities with a vengeance."

That's what the two 33-year-olds realized when they analyzed social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Friendster and professional networks like LinkedIn and Ryze. The Internet in general and virtual networking specifically is rewriting the rules of communication and interaction.

In a white paper issued by IBM last year, researchers concluded "collaborative technologies like social bookmarking provides powerful tools for sharing information and sustaining relationships across geographic borders and industry silos. Often referred to as collective intelligence or the wisdom of the crowd, the reservoir of knowledge created by these confederations of self-designated experts and volunteers can often exceed the sum of the parts."

Analysts at Gartner, a Stamford, CT-based research firm, agree. They call enterprise social software "the biggest new workplace technology success story" of this decade. While traditional collaborative software has facilitated group projects and team¬work for many years, the new networking tools can amplify these existing capabilities, they state in a 2007 report.

Experts say professionals can build business by discovering and drawing upon relationships beyond their immediate teams. Social software tools can help people locate and link up with an extended network of experts, who can offer a fresh perspective and potentially innovative ideas on solving problems and meeting new challenges.

Consider what Robert Reich, former secretary of labor and now a professor at University of California Berkeley has to say. He predicts technology will have the greatest impact in the next few years on "relational capital."

"Relational capital, the relationships inside a company between managers, executives, engineers and people who have certain specialized domains of knowledge, is one of the most important and yet most neglected areas of capital formation," Reich explains. "Companies need to utilize IT so that everyone in an organization can take maximum advantage. Elements of social software are already finding their way into a growing number of companies."

Magee says UPworld--named to reflect global reach, upward career movement and the process of constructing a building from the ground up--provides a way to boost relational capital on a global scale. The site capitalizes on a trend of specialty networking: the development of sites that target specific industry sectors. "We saw there was no existing site exclusively for real estate professionals," she continues.

"Even more importantly, we realized the real estate, financing, design, and building professions are very fragmented and disconnected. The traditional chain of communication throughout the development cycle of real estate deals and construction projects is painfully inadequate and archaic. Real estate brokers, developers, architects, and contractors all participate in different phases of a building project and need each other's services to succeed, but they rarely interact as a team."

She describes UPworld as a new model for communication. The platform encourages web-based project collaboration and networking that can generate discussion between developers, contractors, investors and others with an interest in the design, development and construction of buildings. The idea is to connect real estate professionals for business opportunities, deals and projects.

Magee says UPworld is attracting investors and financing providers, real estate owners and developers, property managers, architects, interior designers, engineers, builders and contractors, fabricators, and suppliers. "Small businesses and individuals that otherwise might not be in touch are able to connect," she adds.

Company officials say Upworld goes beyond directory-listing sites enable architects, clients, contractors, and others to find specific service providers. "The relationships those sites foster are linear and binary: 'I have a job, you have skills. I have product, you need product' They presume that other aspects of getting something built, such as financing or planning, are already addressed," Clancy explains. "UPworld takes a 'whole systems' approach." It connects every part of the building community worldwide, the founders say.

Instant Insights /

Real Estate Networking Website 2,000 Strong and Growing

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