This week, Mireille, our new Online Product Designer, tells us about her first few weeks at XING.

Mireille (Product & Engineering): I just received an email from a friend of mine saying, “You’re working at XING now? It never occured to me that a team of real people actually work there.” To be honest, it came as a surprise to me as well just how many people work here, and I only had a very rough idea of what over 100 employees did exactly. Of course, after four weeks in the job I have a slightly better idea, but am still learning so much on a daily basis. I work as an Online Product Designer and form the interface between Design, Usability and Product Management. It is particularly exciting in this interdisciplinary function to reconcile the broad range of our professional target group’s groups with our international focus. Cultural differences play an important role here. For the last 8 years I’ve worked on a freelance basis for various different agencies and clients. Not a day goes by when I don’t think how right it was to switch over to the company side – and end up working for such a great company. It is brilliant to see everyone working together in unison for the same goals.
Funnily enough, I found my new job through XING Marketplace. I studied Fashion Design – unbelievable to think that there wasn’ta computer in sight in many industries back then. I’m glad I chose to specialise in Multimedia early on, otherwise I probably wouldn’t be at XING now :).

Interested in working at XING? Have a look at our job site – there are currently 36 job openings.

Hmm…who in my network is working in Budapest? I'm fairly sure I don't know anyone there. A click later, and I know better: Michael from my former company is now working in Hungary. What a surprise! And look here: James seems to have moved to Sydney! So. How does this work?

Today we will release a new map view of your professional network. Now you can display the business addresses of your professional contacts – at least those who've allowed their geographic position to be displayed – on a world map. Just navigate to your Address Book and click on ‘Map’ in the second level navigation. This way you get a good idea of how your contacts are spread out around the globe. You can zoom in and out, hide groups of contacts, filter your old MBA class (provided you've tagged them in your Address Book), and so on.

So just by zooming and scrolling through the map, one discovers a new dimension of the business network. It is certainly fun and very addictive. But it creates value as well! The map view (based on Google Maps) gives you background knowledge about your network: Which of my old business acquaintances could I meet with in Chicago next week when I am there for a conference? Where in the world are my contacts at my partner company located? You can find out in a jiffy with the new map view.

At first, you might wonder what's to be gained by mapping your contacts. Apart from the reasons above, I think this is an excellent opportunity to innovate. Just by actually taking this first step, you'll find out what more you could do! Meshing location data and social networking data definitely opens up new possibilities in value creation. I can't wait to see what's next.

... and now I have to zoom around a little bit more.

Today Nelly - our Country Manager for GCC - describe her "Piece of XING"  far away from Hamburg. (click on the image to enlarge)

In last week’s interview, Caglar spoke about the development of the Internet in Turkey and the Turkish online market in general. Now read what he has to say about the Dos and Don’ts of doing business in Turkey, Turkish networking habits and the cember.net user base.

1. Is there anything that non-Turkish business people who want to do business in Turkey and make contacts with Turkish business people should keep in mind?

Caglar: We love to help others, so when you contact a Turkish business person, he or she will definitely support as much as possible – this way you can find opportunities you never thought of before. Sincerity is also very important when communicating with Turkish people. Using a friendly approach rather than a formal one would help. Being humble is appreciated in interpersonal communication, so don’t talk big.

2. How would you characterize Turkish networking habits?

Caglar: Turkey is a Mediterranean country, and people are warm blooded. Then again, it is not always easy for Turkish people to set up the initial contact in real life, which is the basis of expanding a personal network. I think that’s why cember.net has been so successful in Turkey: It’s easier to take the first step online, and as Internet penetration increases and online habits mature, people benefit more and more from online networking.

3. What benefits can XING bring to cember.net users?

Caglar: The main benefit will be to give cember.net users the opportunity to network on a worldwide scale. Turkey's geographical position facilitates it to act as the bond between the western and eastern worlds. XING will be an excellent starting point for cember.net users by allowing them to tap into the potential of doing business between these two worlds. In addition, XING frequently designs new and advanced features, which will certainly benefit cember.net users.

Forget about “Google7”, there’s nothing more dangerous for your sweet tooth and your sporty figure than working at XING!

It somehow became a nice tradition that every now and then XING’s birthday girls and boys bring some cake along to the office to celebrate their special day with us. And the good thing is that as our team has grown and grown over the past four years, the number of birthdays has of course increased too. Yay! On the other hand I have to admit it’s pretty hard to resist the temptation and the yummy smell of a delicious cake at 9:30am.

We´re looking to even more birthday boys and girls. Take a look at our job offers ;)

This week it’s Johannes, our new Manager Business Intelligence:

Johannes (Product & Engineering): Before starting at XING six weeks ago, I was working as a consultant in the field of Business Intelligence – at a management consultancy firm. Although it was actually Sociology I studied at university, which is where I first became interested in analyzing social networks. This was a major factor involved in my decision to apply for the open position at XING. I was ideally looking for a job that unites both Business Intelligence and Social Networking – and now I’ve found one that really fits the bill exactly! In my eyes, XING is the top address when it comes to networks, and I’m really pleased to have been accepted for the position. What is it I particularly like about my new job? I enjoy the fact that I’m a part of something that is continuously evolving and being enhanced into something new. That’s so much more interesting than working, say, in the BI department at a company based around systems that haven’t changed for the past 20 years. I’m also glad that I was fully integrated into the team from day 1, rather than treated like an intern. I’m an outsider in one sense though: The only “Werder Bremen” fan in a team otherwise full of “HSV” fans! This hasn’t stopped me joining the XING football team though; the first training session is next week.

XING is currently offering 32 jobs, from Product to Corporate Development. Have a look at our job offerings here.

Today Microsoft announced the German launch of its new Internet Explorer 8 beta 1, and we’re proud to report that XING is among the initial launch partners. The new Internet Explorer comes with two new great functions, “WebSlices” and “Activities”. Just in time for the launch, we have made sections of the XING website available as Webslices (visitors to my profile, messages and contacts to confirm). We’ve also decided to offer the XING keyword search as an “Activity” integrated into IE8.

First, to the “WebSlices”: Users of the new internet explorer can keep track of new users that have visited their profile or of new messages or contact request that have arrived, just by clicking on the tab at the top of the page.

What’s more, the XING “Activity” allows IE8 users to highlight any keyword on any website and do a XING search by clicking their right mouse key – choose “Find on XING” and you will get the number of XING search results that match your key word.

The XING team is looking forward to yet more office space: Over the coming weeks, among others the ‚Product’ and ‚Engineering’ departments will be packing up their Mac´s and PC´s and moving to their brand new home in these renovated rooms on the fifth floor of our Hamburg head office. Looks like a floorwarming party ahead ;)

You may have noticed that XING was temporarily offline earlier on this afternoon. We have analyzed and solved the problem which occurred during enhancement of our platform's performance and are pleased to report that it has now been fixed and that the platform is fully operational once again. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Last month, when we got the chance to meet Caglar and Nihan from cember.net in Hamburg, they filled us in a bit on the Turkish market. Now in the first part of the openBLOG interview, Caglar describes the historical development of the Internet in Turkey and the Turkish online market in general.

1. Turkey is the fastest growing economy in Europe – what role does the Internet play in the country's economy?

Caglar: Back in 1995, when I was working at one of the first Internet companies in Turkey, I remember that our clients could not get connection speeds faster than 10 bps (not kbps!). I had to tell customers to be patient and wait for a simple text page to load. As a result, not many people were really interested in this “slow and painful” connection back then.

Since then, the Internet has come a long way. Today Turkish internet users are enjoying connection speeds of a few megabits per second, thanks to ADSL and the recent introduction of fiber services. According to the Turkey Internet Report 2007 (only in Turkish) conducted by Beykent University in Istanbul, the number of internet users in Turkey now exceeds 16 million. This of course makes the Internet an important medium for simply everything, from doing business to education to socializing.

A lot of businesses have already adapted, starting to use email in the late 1990’s. By 2000, companies started learning to use the Internet for expanding their businesses as well. There have been announcements in the media that the new Turkish Trade Law will require all companies to have a website. If this happens, even the most traditional businesses will be drawn into the online sector.

ReadWriteWeb’s Emre Sokullu, in his great blog entry “What is it about Turkey” states correctly that the number of young people in Turkey exceeds even that of the most populated countries in Europe, and also that Turkish people have very social characteristics. This is why world’s leading social networking sites and applications have been very successful here.

There is also a significant effort on the e-government side: According to the Global e-Government Report 2007 conducted by Brown University, Turkey’s government websites were ranked 8th out of 198 countries worldwide. With this ranking, Turkey surpassed a lot of EU countries, including Germany and Ireland.

2. How is the Turkish online market currently developing?

Caglar: When Turkish Telecom started providing ADSL service a few years ago, the number of Internet users increased dramatically. This of course affected online business as a whole: Services that require higher bandwidth have been launched, people started shopping, recruiting, ordering, and paying taxes online. And it's not only the younger generation: My mother is a retired teacher, and she checks her emails every day, pays the bills online using the bank’s payment system, and IMs with me and my sister. A lot of companies, both local and foreign, are seeing a big opportunity in Turkey and new investments in this market. The online advertising budgets are increasing rapidly as well.

Read part 2 of the interview next week, when Caglar will tell us more about the cember.net user base, Turkish networking habits and the Dos and Don’ts of doing business in Turkey.

This Tuesday Felix gives us an impression of his "Piece of XING". (click on the image to enlarge)

Lutz Emmerich recently started working as the XING Country Manager for Spain, and is responsible for heading the XING team in Barcelona. Not one to start slowly, Lutz has already assisted in the migration of Neurona members to the XING platform. In our interview Lutz, who has lived in Spain for over eight years, talks about the potential of the Spanish market, why XING meshes so well with the Spanish networking culture, and how he used XING to read up on his new coworkers.

1. You've been working in online marketing for the last 12 years, and have lived in Spain for eight of those. What is this market like in comparison with other European countries?

In comparison with other European countries, Spain is still a very young market. In 2006, only 40% of the Spanish population was online; in Germany the figure was nearly 60%. This means that there's a terrific growth potential in Spain, such as in the e-commerce segment: More and more Spanish Internet users regularly shop online, and are increasingly using the Internet for daily tasks. This also includes making business contacts online, and expanding their professional and private networks via Internet networking.

2. In your opinion, which advantages of the XING network do you think will be particularly important for Spanish professionals?

Spanish professionals place a great deal of value on professional networking, and that's exactly what XING offers. Getting advice and sharing experiences with professionals from around the world in groups and forums is part of this. Already there are over 400 groups on XING in which Spanish is spoken! Plus all the offline events - last year in Spain alone there were nearly 500 events organized over XING. I don't know of any other network that caters to the traditional Spanish networking culture with such a range of comprehensive and well-designed features. Finally, for many members, XING serves as a bridge from Europe to North and South America. The platform is not only available in Spanish, but in 15 other languages as well, making it perfect for interacting with users in other countries.

3.  You mentioned the traditional Spanish networking culture: how are you planning to incorporate this culture into the online world?

We'll communicate the practical benefits of XING as a daily tool for business to Spanish professionals in all industries, and help them discover the range of services and features contained in the platform. We'll be assisted in this by the fact that XING actively supports the connection between offline and online networking – many XING groups meet in person, and conversely many 'real life' events are organized online via the platform. 

4. What attracted you to XING and your new job here?

I've known XING for years now, and from day one was interested in the technical capabilities of the platform and the professional gains it brings to users. For example, before I joined the team, I used the platform to find out more about my future coworkers ;-). When I met the people behind XING in person, I was impressed by their professionalism and their fascination for innovation. This attitude really gets me motivated.

Desde hace poco, Lutz Emmerich es country manager de XING en España. Dirige el equipo español de XING en Barcelona y recientemente ha intervenido en la migración de los usuarios de Neurona. Lutz lleva más de ocho años viviendo en España y, en esta entrevista, nos habla del potencial que ve en el mercado español. También nos explica por qué considera que XING encaja perfectamente en la cultura de networking que existe en España.
¡Bienvenido a XING!

1. Llevas unos doce años trabajando en el área del marketing online y viviendo 8 años en España. ¿Qué ofrece este mercado frente a otros mercados europeos?

En comparación con otros países europeos, España es un mercado bastante virgen. En el año 2006, sólo un 40% de los españoles se conectaba a Internet, mientras que en Alemania ya era casi un 60%. Por eso, España tiene un potencial muy grande, por ejemplo, en el campo del comercio electrónico: cada vez son más los internautas españoles que hacen compras por Internet y usan este medio en su rutina diaria. De la misma manera, cada vez se establecen más relaciones profesionales por Internet y se recurre a esta herramienta para multiplicar los contactos profesionales y privados.

2. De las ventajas que ofrece la red profesional XING en todo el mundo, ¿cuáles crees que van a tener mejor acogida en España?

Al español le atrae el networking, sobre todo, en el ámbito profesional; y eso es precisamente lo que ofrece XING. Uno de los aspectos más interesantes es la posibilidad de intercambiar opiniones y experiencias con profesionales de todo el mundo a través de los foros que hay en los grupos de debate. Hemos de tener en cuenta que existen más de 400 grupos hispano-hablantes en XING. Tampoco podemos olvidarnos de los eventos de networking que se organizan a través de XING. Sólo el año pasado se celebraron casi 500 en España. No conozco ninguna red social que responda a las necesidades de la cultura de networking española como lo hace XING. Al mismo tiempo, XING establece un vínculo importante entre Europa y América (norte y sur): la plataforma se puede usar tanto en español como en cualquiera de los 16 idiomas en los que está disponible la plataforma.

3. Ya que mencionas la “cultura de networking” española, ¿cómo se puede trasladar a Internet la cultura de relacionarse con otros profesionales?

Vamos a presentar a los profesionales españoles de todos los sectores las funciones y ventajas de XING como herramienta profesional de uso diario. Una de nuestras ventajas radica en que XING apuesta claramente por la estrategia de unificar el networking por Internet con el networking en directo: muchos grupos de XING se reúnen en eventos reales que se organizan online.

4.  ¿Qué es lo que te resulta más atractivo de tu nuevo desafío en XING?

Conozco XING desde hace años y desde el principio me impresionó la madurez técnica de la plataforma, al igual que su gran utilidad práctica: por ejemplo, usé XING para informarme sobre mis futuros compañeros de trabajo ;o) Cuando conocí al equipo y las personas que están detrás de XING, me gustó, sobre todo, su profesionalidad y su gran espíritu innovador. Esta mentalidad es una de las cosas que más me motivan.