Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Hackers and The Social Grid...House of Hackers

On the topic of social networking and how it plays into the concept of open innovation, I was just referred to House of Hackers.

Hosted on the Ning platform, House of Hackers is a social network built for the global hacker community. Run by the GNUCITIZEN Think tank, a leading opinion making/forming body in the sphere of Information Security and the “Hacker Lifestyle”, the community supports the ethical hacker culture and provides a unique platform for hackers to express themselves.

With close to 5,000 members on the site and quite a bit of activity in the form of blog posts and open discussion, the network has a lot of potential for sponsorship opportunities as well as the possibility to be an effective recruitment platform for the security industry.

One feature that is getting a lot of momentum in the social networking landscape is the use of portable identity. House of Hackers has employed the strategy as it allows members to represent themselves on Facebook, Linkedin and others as House of Hackers community members.

House of Hackers is one example of how white-labeled social networking platforms can leverage the power of the social grid in the context of media.

I’m looking forward to learning more about the community and getting a deeper understanding of its impact as an important slice of the security industry pie.