Sunday, March 25, 2007

Posted: 24 Mar 2007 04:16 PM CDT

Thanks to Mike Maddaloni of The Hot Iron for his recent post, Why are ChicWIT and WorldWIT Shutting Down? I was not aware of this situation so I am glad that Mike informed his readers about this saddening news.

Liz Ryan founded WorldWIT in 1999 as a networking resource for women (and men too) around the world to connect online, through email, and at events. She built the organization to connect people in 25 countries with multiple cities in each country. So, she created a platform for many thousands of people to build relationships. WorldWIT was one of the first truly global networks and it was before the collaborative Internet is what it is today (i.e. blogs, social networking, wikis, etc.)

The Chicago chapter, ChicWIT was one of the first listservs that I got involved in. It has been a nice resource because I was able to get my message literally pushed to thousands of people at once. Because of the amount of people involved, you were usually guaranteed to connect with someone.

I am sad to see that WorldWIT and ChicWIT are shutting down. It is unfortunate because many people rely on this network to find jobs, find clients, sell items, etc. According to the announcment on the WorldWIT site, Liz is ready to focus more effort on her career and doesn't have the capacity to run the organization anymore. It is too bad that no one from the community stepped up to take it over from Liz. At the same time, Liz may have decided that it was time to end the run. After all, most good things come to an end. Good luck Liz and thanks for your amazing efforts to connect people!