A Social Network for Surveyors

Update: Justin shared further information in an interview 12/10/08.

—————original post 12/9/08————

Justin Farrow who created a social network for surveyors, Land Surveyors United, shared some details about it. It’s not new - it originally launched in March of last year. It reached 100 members as of November. [Update from Justin: “We now have a little over 160 now [12/10]”]

The idea is to share your surveying life. It’s built on Ning (a social networking platform) and includes an overly busy (and long) home page. The copyright is from Palmetto Equipment and Supply, “located on Daniel Island, just off the coast of Charleston SC. We supply land surveyors and construction companies with all of the latest technology for the field.” The relationship between the company and the network is not exactly clear.

Here’s the company’s latest post on the new social network and how it was featured on the Ning blog. Among other things the site has been highlighted by Killer Startups, a site that in my opinion features sites that are not killers.

I’m not yet aware of any geospecific social networking sites and I for one don’t feel a strong need for them. Geospatial people (maybe in contrast to surveyors who are not sitting in front of the computer as much) seem to be finding each other on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.

It will be interesting to see if the site can become a “go to” spot for surveyors. The most talked about network for surveyors that I’ve run across is POB’s RPLS, which is very active.