Spoke is a business directory and social networking site

Social network service

A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...

 co-founded by Ben T. Smith, IV in 2002 and launched in 2003 mainly used for professional networking. The site collects and aggregates information from public sources, private databases and member uploads . Based in San Mateo, California, Spoke is a privately held company with investment from Sierra Ventures, Partech International and DCM.

Features

The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Coworkers. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a Coworkers.

This list of Coworkers can then be used in a number of ways:

• A contact network is built up consisting of their direct Coworkers, the Coworkers of each of their Coworkers (termed second-degree Coworkers) and also the Coworkers of second-degree Coworkers (termed third-degree Coworkers). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone you wish to know through a mutual, trusted contact.
• It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.
• Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.
• Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.

Complaints

Numerous people have complained that the data on Spoke is inaccurate and misleading, and report that requests to correct the information have gone unanswered. Spoke.com posts inaccurate information about people without their consent or knowledge. The subject of an article in Spoke can "claim" their profile (and thereby gain access to a limited range of profile modification tools), but some aspects of the profile can only be modified by Spoke staff. No procedure is provided for profile removal by those who do not wish to be represented by Spoke.

Removal of Pages

Concerns have been raised about Spoke's policies on the retention of personal information


In 2010, new management for Spoke retooled the privacy policies, responding within 24 hours of request to remove pages.http://www.spoke.com/blog/?p=135

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See also

• Business network
• Reputation system
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• Social network
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• Social software
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• List of social networking websites
• Information Routing Group
  Information Routing Group
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