[LINK] How does LinkedIn know my contacts?

[Jan Whitaker]

At 03:19 PM 11/02/2013, Robin Whittle wrote:

>Nonetheless, LinkedIn does provide some services of value, such as the
>forum.  It would be difficult for most businesses to set up a forum they
>can control which most people find easy to read and contribute to, in a
>manner which is generally free from spam and complex administration.
>LinkedIn is one provider of such forums.

Hi Robin, would you join my Linked-In network? ;-)  Just kidding!

Seriously, the forums are pretty good, but then a lot of them also 
got hit by trolls. The best ones are those that are closed and 
membership granted from a moderator. Some of the topics of interest 
to my class are risk management and IT governance. It's the 
professional participation and emerging info that I find useful. Plus 
if you find a new topic to explore, you can usually find it 
relatively easier there. It's the modern version of the esoteric 
newsgroups of the past and listserves (like Link) with a web interface.

What got me was the number of people who bought into the 
'endorsement' strategy. Thanks to those who did that (some linkers 
even) for me, but I'm not convinced of the validity of this process. 
One guy I knew from 30+ years ago in Iowa who I found on LinkedIn 
again endorsed me for something. Oh really? Nice of him, but I could 
be an axe murderer now and he wouldn't know it. (Yes, people do 
change that much, or maybe they were such inclined at the time but 
you didn't pick it up.....)

LinkedIn is becoming more Facebookish than it used to be, unfortunately.

Oh well.....

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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