While most people only use the Internet to share pictures and yak, senior reporter Cristina Chen also uses it to get contacts and bounce ideas off fellow journalists she met on a recent fellowship programme.
Ms Chen, who writes for Taiwan's Commercial Times newspaper, is hooked up to a Multiply online network.

This lets her share her views on international trade and innovation offshoring on her blog. It also keeps her engaged with journalist friends, who sometimes post their articles online.

The network was set up three months ago, after she completed the Jefferson Fellowship, a prestigious programme organised by the East-West Center in the United States that brought together journalists from Asia and the US to discuss pressing issues of the day.

Since she returned to Taipei from the month-long programme, she has been keeping in touch with a handful of the 12 journalists she met.

Despite them being scattered in newsrooms around the globe, they are valuable contacts. 'I'm usually not interested in visiting friends' blogs,' she admitted. But she said the Multiply link provided an online knowledge base which she can tap into.

One of her regular contacts is Mr David Llorito, research chief of the Philippine Business Daily Mirror. He set up the Multiply network to hook up everyone, since it was not easy to keep in touch with expensive international calls and time zone differences.

Mr Llorito has also set up a Multiply online group, jokingly called Fellowship of the Drink, because of the hearty dinners the group had together.

On the group's website, everyone can share their views on serious topics like media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's latest market forays.

Better yet, the online link may foster a real-world reunion soon. There is a media conference in Bangkok next year to which alumni of the journalist programme are invited. Mr Llorito and others are already planning to attend a meeting that would likely not have happened without the Internet.