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Thursday 30 April 2009

Dude, where are my real experts on LinkedIn? ... Suggestions included

Alison's Contribution:

As you've brought up the issue of cause and effect, I would like to add my different voice and associated concerns.

I think the effect of "high ranked experts" has a demotivating effect - many people tune out and don't bother answering many questions - thus narrowing the number of people who are eligible for "best answers" even further. With the numbers of answers rocketing, I also think that it gets seen as a club for people with too much time on their hands.

For instance even if you copy and pasted answers, minimum time per answer has to be at least a minute - take up to another minute to tailor it and the minimum amount of time is 2 minutes per answer.

With all the other restrictions developed and in place, surely LinkedIn could set up a time based system that only 2 answers could be viewed and given within 5 minutes, and say 4 within half an hour.

This would take part of the the "RACE" out of the equation and hopefully lead to a different kind of participation. You may need to take out the purely mechanical questions (How do I close my account, merge account, send an invitation - BTW LinkedIn, I think these types of questions should go straight to customer service so that new users don't feel that they are left on their own with 11m+ people who might be a wolf in disguise.)

No doubt many have seen my earlier "rants" on the ratings system and how one might use deBono's Thinking Hats. Having said that, all ratings are biased, it's hard to come up with a better solution.

As I've said before, in come cases the asker is not qualified to determine who has given the best answer.

I'd best conclude my ramblings - I've spent more than 20 minutes and I can tell the garden beckons as I have no heart to go back make it witty or inspiring. I could do better, but I'm annoyed at the number of airplanes flying overhead ruining my week-end.

Where's the expert who can invent a silent airplane engine - surely the noise is not necessary.

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