Our Blog: where do you stand?

Social Networking for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community: Dot429

By: Marijean Jaggers | 08/19/2010

Dot429 launched last month as a professional network designed to connect members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities and their allies. Business Week has called it "a kind of LinkedIn for LGBT entrepreneurs." This is the first professional network to use sexual identity as a defining parameter for its members. Other networks have been established based on profession, such as Ozmosis, the social network for physicians, or by gender, such as BlogHer, the network formed by female bloggers. There's even Blogging While Brown -- a conference and network that brings together people of color.

Dot429 is another professional social network; but what's fresh about the concept is not its audience -- it is its commitment from the beginning to connect business people on and offline. Events are a key component in the network's business model, and with more than 10,000 LGBT community members already signed in, it seems well on its way to creating a successful network.

What do you think about sexual identity as a basis for business networking?

Posted in Digital Communications