The network, called "Company of Friends," groups the professionals into 200 chapters around the world. Henceforth, members of the network will be able to maintain their own blogs, answer daily "Fast Talk" questions posed by the site's editors, and engage in online discussions. Each member's contributions will also be displayed on their personal profile, creating individual portfolios of user-generated content.

Like all content on the site, user contributions will be tagged and organized around a few core themes: innovation, technology, leadership, management, design, social responsibility, careers and work-life balance. Members can also personalize their profiles with feeds from other business news organizations on the Web--and in turn, supply their own content to other sites via RSS feeds.

In mid-January, Mansueto Ventures, which owns Fast Company and Inc., announced that it was creating a new online video news network covering business and technology under the direction of Robert Scoble, a leading technology blogger.

Launching in March, the network will feature Scoble's daily video series, ScobleTV, which currently receives about 1 million views per month, according to Mansueto. Scoble's blog, Scobleizer.com, is also joining Mansueto Digital's network.

Sister publication Inc. is launching IncBizNet.com, a sort of social network and user-generated company database for privately held companies. IncBizNet.com will function as a directory with data updated by the companies themselves, with a press release newswire, blogging functions, local community groups and a marketplace for products and services.

To kick off the new site, the network will be pre-populated with all the companies featured in Inc.'s recent list of the 5,000 fastest-growing privately held companies. However, the magazine is inviting all senior managers from all privately held, U.S.-based companies to participate. This includes PR directors, CMOs, and CEOs. Overall, the site hopes for 1 million company-members.

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