[uiri]

IEEE Collabratec is a weird social networking thing that they have. I think it is trying a little bit too hard to be LinkedIn except LinkedIn is already LinkedIn.

vTools Events is really great but it is obviously intended for organizing face-to-face meetings, workshops, etc.

I do agree that IEEE should just host a phpBB forum (or similar) on their site. Perhaps have a subforum for each Society and Affinity Group and also subfora for various Regions/Sections.