How could computing help us find better partners in professional life?

What is it about?

We define requirements for information systems that could help people and organizations to make more well-informed decisions about who would work together. In practice, this refers to recruitment, team formation, and social networking, for example. We point that following the algorithmic traditions in other types of systems can lead to many negative effects on social networking and organizational productivity. Basically, we're trying to set some basic directions and guidelines for how the application area that we term "professional social matching" could be approached in the most useful and ethical way. We call for diversity, social serendipity, and deeper cooperation between the system and its users.

Featured Image

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Professional life is becoming increasingly networked and collaborative. Therefore, the decisions on who would work together are ever more impactful on professional success. This question of "who" is relatively little considered when thinking about organizational strategies. The application area "professional social matching" has already seen various information systems that follow rather questionable logic of operation, so we need to rethink how to build systems that are more appropriate and socially and ethically sustainable.