Space Is The Place

"There is, of course, another way to meet people.  It is called networking.  Networking is what people have to do when those with like interests live too far apart to be thrown together in public spaces through chance and propinquity.  Networking is what people in small towns have to do to establish any complex cultural life today.

But contemporary networking is notably different from contact.

At first one is tempted to set contact and networking in opposition.  Networking tends to be professional and motive-driven.  Contact tends to be more broadly social and appears random.  Networking crosses class lines only in the most vigilant manner.  Contact regularly crosses class lines in those public spaces in which interclass encounters are at their most frequent.  Networking is heavily dependent on institutions to promote the necessary propinquity (gyms, parties, twelve-step programs, conferences, reading groups, singing groups, social gathering, workshops, tourist groups, and classes), where those with the requisite social skills can maneuver.  Contact is associated with public space and the architecture and commerce that depend on and promote it.  Thus contact is often an outdoor sport; networking tends to occur indoors."

-- Samuel Delany, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue