Professional associations are good investments. Whether you are networking for a job, keeping skills up to date or just seeking the company of colleagues, your reward from participating will exceed your investment many times over. A recent inquiry about local Philadelphia area associations that focus on IS/IT related topics provided the basis for this post.

While I don’t mean to slight national associations, I have only included groups that I know to have an active chapter in the Philadelphia area, just as a way to illustrate the F2F aspect of association activity. Many of these have an affiliation with a national organization, while others are strictly local. Techies outside Philly can use this list to get ideas about groups that might exist in your area. Even if you do not live in an urban area, you I encourage you to explore ways to network with other IS/IT professionals who meet face to face even if you have to take the first step.

Just choose the place to meet, and a discussion topic for the first meeting and then post an announcement to Meetup or Craigslist.  Just DO it! I promise you will be rewarded many times over! As always, I welcome your comments or any additional suggestions for this growing list of Philly area associations.

Regards,
Tim Siftar

Gerry Stahl’s INFO105 class recently heard about the different kinds of literature I find in the information technology / information systems field.  Following ancient library wisdom  “use the right tool for the job,” students who distinguish between the following 6 types are in a better position to take advantage of the strengths of each, while avoiding some of the “round-peg-square-hole” pitfalls that might otherwise arise. So here’s a quick overview of the talk.  Their assignment focused on “web 2.0″ examples so I may include sample search results along those lines.