Haven’t heard of Meetup? Neither had I until near the end of 2008 when I started catching up with my fellow Tuskegee alums thru a digital community created by one of our Golden Tiger grads Larry Johnson.

One of my old buddies on that group, Patrick Harris, created a branch off group on Meetup, an online system that allows you to create offline meetup communities. It’s a great way to carry over your typical online facebook and LinkedIn groups to plan meetups with groups of people that you actually want to follow up with in person.

Go to Meetup and create a group for your social, civic, professional and scholarly groups and see if you can’t turn some of your virtual verve into something practical. If nothing else, wouldn’t it be fun to meet some of the cool people you read about on their blogs and whose profiles and posts you read in those other social communities?

Just another tool in your digital tool belt, people. So pull out your keyboards and leverage online networks to the fullest.

Let me offer a few suggestions to help you jump start a prosperous year. Be sure to put these three on the book shelf.

* Good to Great by Jim Collins

Jim Collins and his research team conducted a study of long time corporations that went from mediocre to spectacular. Those companies identified and thoroughly embraced their “Hedgehog concept” or their main purpose. Read up for more details on that idea. Even more enlightening to me was that those companies put the right people on the bus first THEN figured out where they needed to go. The analogy is one of team chemistry and the proper fit of personell. You can teach skills but you can’t teach character where it doesn’t exist. The emphasis is one of people over qualifications, something I’ve always intuitively believed in.

* The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

Friedman’s best seller from a few years ago is still germaine today, especially in light of the global economic tremors of the last few months. He addresses many of the issues of globalism and how it is to be embraced not feared. Many issues are covered from doing “green” as actual environmental policy and lifestyle – and not just a buzz word – to the critical importance of all Americans taking on education as a national mission and not the “have and have not” debacle as it has played out over the decades.

* The Audacity of Hope by President Elect Barak Obama

Our pending president outlines his views of the country and the world. He does so in terms of his personal beliefs and from his political perspective. It’s a great read that will make you nod your head “ah-ha” style as you realize how his platform issues were developed during the campaign season. If you didn’t take the time to read the details of his policies on his web site over the last months then the book will hep you to understand where he’s coming from.

So what did you read last year that you’d recommend to the rest of us as a reading list carry-over? What do your favorite authors have scheduled to hit bookstores this year that we should not miss? Share and enlighten. Click on my Amazon link and add these three to your personal collection today.