Dear All, I feel a little awkward posting here as this is research oriented community but I don't know who else I could turn to, so please excuse my off-topic questions. Some time ago I posted an e-mail here entitled: 'Social networking websites research/grad student questions' and got some very valuable responses, which really got me thinking. I decided that want to move on with my research/PhD plans I have to change my school and move abroad (probably to the US). Thank to Karine Barzilai-Nahon, Caroline Haythornthwaite and Andrea Kavanaugh's posts I also decided that my future school should be an Information one. My problem is that I don't know anybody who has done it before or who has any experience in applying to a PhD program in the US. I read 'all' that google has to offer and am still lacking a lot of information. We don't have any student advisers or a tradition of acting as a mentor where I live. So I am looking for a person that could help me: -evaluate my current situation and point me in a right direction, -show things to work on to improve my chances of being accepted, -draw a road map, It would also be great, if this person could get me involved in some sort of a research project. It does not have to a be long-term relationships (it could be!), just a couple e-mails would help me a lot. Can you please tell me, how I can find such a person. How to approach him/her? I have no idea how such relationships work because I have never been in one nor do I know anybody has. Is there anybody who you would recommend? My main research interest is the influence of web 2.0 websites such as digg.com or del.icio.us on information retrieval - how do such websites change the way we look for and evaluate information online, will this affect modern search engines such as google and what consequences this may cause for online marketeers. Thank you very much for your help and understanding. Sincerely, MK