Early this year, Leonard Witt, a professor of communication at Kennesaw State University, went online and met two aficionados of social networks, in which people interact through blogs, podcasts, virtual worlds and other new media.

Witt and his new friends, Sherry Heyl, CEO of What a Concept!, which advises clients on emerging social network technologies, and entrepreneur Jeff Haynie, soon decided to host a discussion at Kennesaw on social networking.