The continuing discussion of LinkedIn
- IT TOPICS:Careers
In prior posts about LinkedIn, we more or less agreed that LinkedIn doesn't live up to the promise of hooking together networks of trust. Even so, it has its merits for facilitating conversation among people who already know each other.
Following up on that, I found a fairly official mission statement, in what appears to be the definitive discussion around the time of LinkedIn's launch two years ago. It's by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman:
What's the goal of LinkedIn? LinkedIn allows two people, who link to each other, to exchange networks for professional goals. "Exchange networks" means that you will represent this person and their network to your network (on a case by case basis); and that you will represent your network to this person and their network. It's very "web of trust." Why professional? So that the point of the interactions in this space is clear, and that everyone knows who to invite or not. (Would you introduce this person to your other trusted business contacts, at least for some good specific reason?)
Well, as my Rob Carpenter experiment shows, that's not really the way it works. Even so, considerable optimism about LinkedIn remains.
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