One of the main differences I've noticed between my friends working in the creative field and those in industry or finance is the greater degree of sharing that takes place amongst 'the creatives'. It's not that the people I know who are working in industry or finance are mean-spirited, it's more that their work is often pretty much mapped out for them and it's a matter of getting it done. The decisions that need to be made are often binary in nature, and the institutions they work for have teams in place to monitor and rubber-stamp those decisions anyway...

Contrast that with those friends - particularly the self-employed ones - who work in the creative sector; musicians, writers, illustrators, photographers, designers, poets... very few of them always work in isolation, but most could never afford to pay the kind of rates that the help they require would demand on the open market.

So what happens? We share. And we form informal groups and networks and collectives to facilitate that sharing.

My favourite such space at the moment is the Tuttle Club, or 'Social Media Cafe' to give it its posh title. Tuttle is a Friday morning gathering of techie people from a variety of work backgrounds, brought together by a shared love of and usage of social media.

Social Media in this context refers to any technological tool that enables communication and interactive information flow. The most popular Social Media applications include ubiquitous networking sites like Facebook and Myspace alongside conversation-based platforms like Twitter, Seesmic, Phreadz.

As well as the obvious promotional application, they provide online places to communicate, socialise, ask questions, answer questions, get help and support. Many creatives use them to share ideas and to offer their contacts the chance to see what they're up to.

So the Tuttle Club provides a face to face meeting point for people who are using these Social Media tools as part of their work-life. Within the context of a 'geek's coffee morning', I've had the chance to meet some of the most creative and inspiring people I've ever come across - great thinkers and artists, all sharing into the melting pot of ideas that get cooked up each Friday.

Because of the informal nature of the get together, I've never seen anyone's CV from Tuttle. There are only a handful of people there whose qualifications I know anything about at all, but I know all about their work, I read their blogs, listen to their music, watch their videos, look at their photos and as a result know exactly who to go to when I either need some help in those areas, or hear of work going that requires those skills.

The number of work referrals going on on Friday mornings is amazing. I was invited to contribute to this very blog as a result of a Tuttle-related group of contacts. So many great things have come out of it and not once has anyone refused me information because I hadn't paid them, or asked what I was going to do in return. It all comes about via friendships that build up through shared interests and mutually beneficial work opportunities.

And that kind of sharing is vital to the creative work life. It's not a free-for-all - The people who always ask first 'what's the money like?' are spotted early on, and often end up missing out on the best stuff because of their unwillingness to get involved. Likewise those people who are out to see how much they can get for free - but the magic is in mutual sharing, in helping out like-minded creatives, swapping skills and all moving forward together. That way, everyone wins.

Do you have any experiences of that kind of sharing and swapping of skills? In a later post, I'll outline a few of the musical situations in which this has worked to everyone's benefit...