This recently launched website aims to enable academics from around the world to keep in touch and stay up to date with the latest research in their field:

www.academia.edu

I’ve added the University of Lincoln to the “tree” of research institutions, which also includes Cambridge, Oxford, and MIT. Once you add yourself and choose your research interest(s), a list of people who share those interests will appear on the left of the window. You can also browse departments, institutions and research areas.

At the moment it’s not very widely used, but the website’s creator hopes that as it develops it will help researchers stay up to date and keep in touch with others who share similar interests.