People sensemaking and relationship building on an enterprise social network site

Abstract

This paper describes a social network site designed to support employees within an enterprise in connecting and learning about each other through personal and professional sharing. We introduce the design concepts and provide a detailed account of the first three months of usage, involving nearly 300 users. Our findings suggest that employees find the site particularly useful as a way to perform people sensemaking of individuals and to connect and maintain relationships with others on the site. © 2009 IEEE.