To Be LinkedIn or Not to Be LinkedIn?

Tue, 22 May 2007 01:50:59 GMT

I've been putting some energy into LinkedIn recently in an effort to build my "network" and see what it might offer as a popular Web 2.0/SNS exemplar. I've been pleasantly surprised thus far, and can definitely see how valuable it might be in the longer run as a "living" (in some sense) online resume. I think that it provides a very interesting alternative to your typical Word or PDF resume that you send around in mail; it can be much more efficient in terms of the information it can provide about you, in particular where it concerns the extended metadata about the work you've done--and here I mean, for example, recommendations from colleagues, managers, and former employers.

In order to complete my LinkedIn profile, I thought it would be a good idea to collect some recommendations from people I've known. Three of my contacts responded almost immediately, and one was reluctant--not because I had been a bad employee or anything, but because he didn't trust the way in which the information might be perceived and used publicly, out of original context. My first reaction was: "What a Luddite! Can't he just get on the social networking bandwagon?" Then I thought, no, I could learn something from this--his perspective may be very much like that of many others who resist what these new online tools have to offer because of their perceived risks or dangers, in particular where it concerns the use and management of personal information. He outlined for me a scenario where a former employee of his had become increasingly dysfunctional due to alcoholism, and had he written him a recommendation that could live on out of context, online and visible to everyone indefinitely, his reputation as a reliable judge of character would have been destroyed. (He did say, however, he'd be happy to write me a formal recommendation, just not a public endorsement on a site like LinkedIn.)

I thought that he had a point: we need to do a better job of figuring out ways to give users control over the information they provide and contributions they make online when they're participating on social networking sites or using social technologies. Without that we run the considerable risk of investing in systems of great potential that never really get anywhere because the online majority doesn't feel it can trust how their information will be used.

Here are some more thoughts on the matter, which comprised the bulk of my response to him:

I think it's true that formal written recommendations should be subject to a different set of expectations as to their weightiness than what goes on a social site like LinkedIn. And yes, it is a problem that things change over time, and you can never be sure of the validity in the present of judgements made in the past, in different contexts.

I think the informality of LinkedIn (by virtue of its Web medium) is a double-edged sword. Its very informality and convenience gets people to participate and engage and contribute in ways that they ordinarily might not, which can produce a great number of important social benefits, if handled right. On the other hand it can lull people into a false sense of security & propriety--that is, what they have to say they offer up comparatively casually because it's so convenient: "it's just the Web, after all"--that can come back and bite them later, because it does in fact create a public record of things that can be hard to rescind or erase. I think people like Ms Nevada or what's her name--that contestant on American Idol--can attest to that.

Perhaps for this to really work well, 'recommenders' should be given a greater degree of control over their recommendations, such that they can make very clear the limited contexts (temporal or otherwise) to which their recommendations apply. I could even imagine a "time bomb" on a recommendation: after a certain length of time, the recommendation expires. Or, perhaps the recommender should be able to explicitly rescind his/her recommendation whenever he/she wishes.

Clearly, there's plenty to think and be cautious about as we sally forth in building this brave new "linked in" world of ours.

- dave

o brave new world: social networking

To Be LinkedIn or Not to Be LinkedIn?