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.