Everyone Else Gives T-Shirts; Why Can't I?

It's been about two weeks since I started this blog, and I think it's time to get you readers involved a little. So here goes, the first contest from The Social Creature. Send me an interesting story from your experience with social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace. Your story can be funny or strange, as long as it's entertaining. You can post it as a comment here, as I look at all comments before they become public. Within the next two weeks or so, I'll pick my favorite one and post it here for the world to see. The most entertaining story will get the writer 15 minutes of fame and a free Social Creature t-shirt when the design debuts at the beginning of May. As usual, I also welcome other comments, recommendations and suggestions for interesting topics.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of interesting links from other bloggers:

How to Make and Spread Rumors from Dan Zarella, an expert on viral marketing

3 Great Social Networking Tools from The Fog of Eternity

BookLamp - Book Recommendation System from The Sociable Blog

YourSpace: A Network For Every Taste

Ever want a social network that serves your interest or occupation? MySpace is great for keeping in touch with that girl you met while partying on spring break, and Facebook will keep you posted on how your best friend from high school is doing, but how about meeting others in the same social niches as you? A recent slew of specifically targeted sites make it possible to network with others who share the same job, the same hobby, or the same geographic region.

"For example, let's say that you want to play with your old band, but the band members have moved on and now live in different cities. So use jamNOW to get together," advises the User's Manual for jamNOW, a networking site for musicians. The site is based on a standalone application which connects to the site's server to put you in touch with other musicians. You and your friends can enter a virtual room where the input from an instrument you have connected to your computer mixes with your friends' audio, allowing each of you to hear it as if you were playing in the same location. The software allows for other users to join the room as an audience, and for your music to be broadcast live on the Internet.

In a previous post, I talked about PilotShareTheRide.com, but there are sites for every mode of transportation. Are you in the trucking business, an aspiring trucker or just living vicariously? Layover.com's myLayover provides you with a community of your own. Layover, a job hunting site for truckers, has just launched a BETA version of its social network which allows you to get updates on weather, licensing and training requirements, and share tips with other truckers. It also offers all the standard social network features such as profiles, photo albums, blogs and video content so you're never bored on the road.

If you're looking for a more conventional past-time, there are also plenty of sites for you. CarSpace caters specifically to automotive enthusiasts and people looking to buy or sell cars while Advogato, a veteran of online communities, serves those working in free and open-source software. MyChurch, a site for Christians modeled on Facebook and MySpace, even allows churches to collect their tithes from members online. There is also Cake Financial, designed for investors. The site links to your brokerage accounts, tracks your performance, and lets you monitor trends as well as sending you alerts of your friends' trading activity.

Looking change the world? Care2 provides a forum for those supporting environmental and social causes. It is designed to facilitate activism. The site has a click-to-donate feature, as well as Earth-friendly shopping, online petitions and a healthy living section, in addition to standard fare expected from a social site.

Perhaps you feel you need a more exclusive experience. If you can get in, sites like aSmallWorld and Diamond Lounge allow you to hobnob with the social elite. While neither explicitly states that net worth is a requirement, each one is invitation only and those are hard to come by. Diamond Lounge charges a $60 per month membership fee, and the rules are akin to a country club (the sites are actively patrolled to prevent undesirable individuals and harassment). aSmallWorld, for example, allows just 15% of its members to invite newbies. Diamond Lounge has 5,000 applications pending from billionaires, professional athletes and members of the film industry. In the end, though, they'll only take 500.

Come Fly With Me: Ridesharing In The Sky

Ever feel like flying? Most of us don't have a pilot's license or access to a plane. Wouldn't it be great if we could find someone who did, split the costs and take off for a couple of hours? PilotShareTheRide.com aims to provide a solution kind of like carpooling. Just do a search for people looking for others to fly with them, or, if you're a pilot, post a listing, find a match based on time, departure and destination, and go.

Baldy Ivy, a cowboy working in Arizona, started the site back in 2004 and it has since developed a following over 8,000 users strong in the private aviation community. Baldy supports the site through advertising, merchandise sales and donations and is always looking for financial support, as a site of that size is expensive to run. It's an ideal place to meet others who enjoy flying to anywhere and nowhere in particular. It also helps keep flying economical, especially as aviation fuel reaches $4 to $6 per gallon. Splitting the cost between two people puts this hobby within reach for a lot more people.

After registering for a free account, I did a search just to see who was going where. The search returned hundreds of results, and about 30 just for the state of Georgia. Most of the people that post are just looking to get up in the air for a few hours and are game on any given weekend. A lot of the listings are flights with no destination specified. Go anywhere you feel like going that day! Some are described as "hamburger flights," which means flying to your destination, grabbing a bite to eat and stretching your legs, and flying back.


Aside from people just looking for a joyride, Baldy makes sure the site helps serve the community. The users of the site helped in the evacuation effort following Hurricane Katrina, with 270 pilots flying in to lend a hand. It's also a good resource for the pilot community. Anyone looking to share time in order to log the hours necessary to get a certain license or certification will find plenty of others who are willing to join forces.

If you've ever wanted to get off the ground for a while, take a look at PilotShareTheRide.com, a unique opportunity to do something different with your weekend.

A special thanks for help with this article goes to my friend, a long-time civilian pilot and fellow member of the armed forces.