Is LinkedIn to a point where your profile should be included on business cards?

Alison's Contribution:

If you are considering this, I think you should also consider buying a domain like PeterManis.com which automatically redirects to you LinkedIn page. Why? For two reasons:

1. You want to reinforce you, rather than LinkedIn in your professional relationships.
2. The length of the url will be quite long and convulted.

Another advantage is that you can use your own web site to promote which ever social / business networking sites which work for you.

How real is the shortage of talented software engineers, build / release engineer, UI designers?

Alison's Contribution:

There have certainly been many good responses. I'm currently one of those "middle-men" trying to match the talent with the career opportunities at clients. I have a slightly different perspective based on a few years of project experience as well.

1. Career Developers are very bright people and many have noticed that they can double or treble their income by working on contract on projects.
2. Young developers quickly noticed or are encouraged to take on other project responsibilities so that their development skills become less than 50% of the time they spend on the job.

Combine this with the fact that many companies want 2 years commercial experience (by which time, young developers are looking to move away from development to earn more money) and you'll always have a skill shortage.

From my perspective, it is more than the skills which make the match though - and the match making is not easy.

Networking Opportunity

Alison's Contribution:

Hope this helps. I have been where you fear to be. So, know that that the suspension can be lifted. Simply write to customer support and explain why so many people said they didn't know you.

There are lots of options to avoid the situation in the future - you have their email addresses, so I would avoid sending invitations until you are sure they will probably accept. This might seem counter "productive", but my experience tells me that many candidates hate recruiters who don't bother to get to know them and their unique characteristics.

Another tactic to take is to provide a personal introduction vs the standard one and assume that everyone will be willing to look you up. You might also ask people to archive invitations rather than say they don't know you.

Regarding LinkedIn and the Recruiting Industry, it is true that LinkedIn has over 11 million participants. Until recently, I believed that extending my reach on LinkedIn was the best thing I could do to make the best use of it. That was based on the best information I had at the time. Now I'm not so sure. If you use tools like Google to search by site eg site:linkedin.com (variables) you can come up with a long list of candidates across the whole of the program (proving they have a public profile).

The debate between InMails vs Introductions is a different topic, so I won't go into it here. Suffice to say that when you find that perfect candidate, you'll want every tool in your kit bag to get to them and convince them that you've found a great career challenge.

Freemium services - what are the most interesting examples you have seen of companies providing their core products and services for free ( we have se

Alison's Contribution:

Here's my 2pence worth.

1. There are lots of software vendors have a free edition, some restricted to non-commercial user, others not. SugarCRM is one which you might want to check out.

2. Bundling broadband/voice/tv - many UK suppliers are bundling phone, mobile, TV and broadband - Virgin's latest is £10/product, BT are hitting back with £8 anytime time landline calls (down from £35 couple of years ago) - BT also have the offer of free VOIP evening and week-end. My package has 2 1/2 hours anywhere broadband access which is great to have for the tablet on wireless access.

What else could follow this approach? - Certainly I see a huge market for anywhere broadband connectivity so I'm sure the telecos will hook up with the tablet and mobile computing platforms soon to make it seamless.

Another application which could become more prevelant is Vodaphone family - eg having the ability for 4 to 6 non-business phones to call each other as much as they want for a flat rate per month - £5 for 4 phone numbers. Great for Loyalty!

In terms of items which could use it, I think there are two areas - Gaming and Education which would benefit from wider distribution. Tweenies and teens are already addicted to the on-line social interaction of sites designed for them and as they grow older I see a growing trend for them to look for subscription based services.

The Education market has barely been touched by this to date, but I see viable ways for students to participate individually in global class rooms where their work is shared with others - and all are learning from the best teachers available with class room assistants where required. Whether this will be live or not will depend on the artificial intelligence which can be built into the system.

What would the Business Model be? I think the most useful is a flat rate subscription service, possibly with a peak surcharge and semi-annual tarriff review. So, something like Vodaphones data pack access package but with more functionality.

Another model would be to have a "Choose to Use" on a monthly basis - so if you use a service, you incur a cost from that day for 28 days. Then you can "take a break", and effectively renew the contract when you wished.

Do you think that LinkedIn is too "static" for its users?

Alison's Contribution:

LinkedIn is certainly not Facebook or Doostang. However, it fills a useful service and has over twice the number of users of any on the other business networking sites that I've seen. Sheer weight of traffic may be one reason why messaging/notes/contact management have yet to be introduced. With them, LinkedIn would be nearly unassailable in the social networking stakes, providing they also had a LinkedIn on the Go Module so that I only had to have one gadget to hold all this important info. NB This is a personal opinion.

Would you agree that Altruism is 'hard-wired' into human brains?

Alison's Contribution:

Great question. Interesting article.

The gist of the article is that your moral compass is determined by how well your brain functions, and, that the foundation of morality is empathy.

Part 2: The types of people I that I have seen succeed in their careers are those who have great Empathic abilities - the ability to strategize, seek competitive advantage, take care of their staff along the way.

Sorry if this isn't the answer you seek, but I think it's the one I need to make even though altruistic is a word I'd use to describe myself.

20 Ways to Use LinkedIn Productively

Alison's Contribution:

Thanks! Makes me think that LinkedIn should have a section devoted to finding the best links and references on how to use it effectively.

Answers is okay for a one off, but everyone who joins in a month will miss it

Jobster.com: Has anyone used this site and if so, what do you think of it?

Alison's Contribution:

I've been spammed for quite some time to join. I finally did just to stop the emails.

Nothing against them, just at this point in time I don't have time.

My 2 minute glance showed me that it looked like a cross of Doostang and Facebook.

You might want to contact Tom Laine who is pushing another one - one of my network forwarded an invitation.

What I do know is that even professional networkers will grind to a slow crawl unless someone creates a widget to keep them in synch. So, if you are interested in helping create one, please let me know.

LinkedIn Widget for Facebook?

Alison's Contribution:

I agree with you and your clarification. I would add that the sooner someone comes up with the ways of finding people across all the social networks, the better!

Doostang and LInkedIn I use for professional information and Facebook for fun. I've toyed with a couple of others and had to join Jobster just to stop the spam from arriving. At least Blue Chip Expert have honoured the promise to not spam me with invitations.

With Ning, you can set up your own social network as the LinkedIn LIONs have done.

I have nothing against any individual network, only that I'm in desperate need of a gadget to keep them all in synch without it taking up all my spare time.

How does one frame a question so as to maximize the number and quality of responses?

Alison's Contribution:

As another person interested in the Art of Communication, you'll know that I believe that there are a set of rules (algorithms) which if followed will improve both the quantity and quality of our thinking - both for Askers and for Answerers. I've stated these off the top of my head as a set of principles.

1. State it as a positive challenge aimed at mobilising a group (ask for action within a given time period)
2. Make the complex simple and understandable
3. Leave room for someone to contribute their viewpoint which might just be a better way

I think this covers the who, what, where, when, why and how of it. I wish I had a bit of wit to inspire everyone. The only thing I can think of is "the squeaky wheel may get greased, but if you change the way you "squeak", you may get a better class of oil.

Let me know what you come up with.

What do I do with my troubled genius?

Alison's Contribution:

I don't know if this will help you, but Rob Goffee from London Business School just did a seminar on Leading Clever People. Although tangental to your problem, it might give you some ideas. I believe the Power Point presentation of the talk is available from the www.london.edu site.

Myers Briggs & Marketing Messages

Alison's Contribution:

PEEP - Web usability methodology. If you thought you knew everything, you should check out how they have integrated the two concepts so that it can be applied to on-line services..

Should LinkedIn Create Palm or Blackberry-Compatable Web Pages?

Alison's Contribution:

I'd be happy if they did tablet sized pages. All the fancy decoration - orange borders and grey boxes interfere a bit with the readability.

Buy an N800 - it's well worth the experience!

Value of the website

Alison's Contribution:

Maybe I'm being a bit simplistic. My view of web sites is that they are either there to generate leads or to sell products OR BOTH. To create VALUE for your Visitors, you need to ask them what they need.

1. What Products do they need? What information do they need to decide to buy from you?
2. What Services do they need? What information do they need to buy these services through you?
3. How can you make your site "Sticky" - ie a place people will come back to time and time again. For LinkedIn, Answers is the Sticky bit for most people (besides recruiters). For Facebook, the sticky bit is events, marketplace, a number of applications, ability to interact with friends and strangers alike.

I hope this helps and as someone else has pointed out, trust that you meant SERVICE not CERVIX though I understand that adult services are fairly profitable too.

What's the best way to connect with Open Networkers?

Alison's Contribution:

LION = Like It Or Not, as far as I'm aware..

Having someone say LIONs will link to everyone because the ON = open networker is misleading. BTW, I checked and I don't have to accept every invitation.

I would recommend mylink500.com and TopLinked.com.

I have a new business book on influencing titled : Influence, Power and the U Perspective- The Art of Getting What You Want: Anyone have any good idea

Alison's Contribution:

Here's my pragmatic approach:

1. Printing on Demand / Distribution
Have you used www.Lulu.com? I think you can use them to publish on demand and then offer it on a number of on-line book shops as well. Your foreign book reviews should stand you in good stead

2. Book Reviews
By virtue of Step 1, you'll get more "foot" traffic because of the association of your book. The next step is to think of where people look for inspiration for the books they will be likely to purchase and get a few review in.
3. Distribution Agents
I would contact the distribution agents directly and see if they had a way of offering specials for your book when book shops called in / ordered on-line.

That's as much as I can think of in 5 minutes. Hope it helps.

Alison Murray

BTW, I'm in the middle of pulling a book together. Let me know how you fare as I'm likely to want to take advantage of the learning you've made. Also, let me know if you publish on Lulu - I didn't spot a copy of your book at two book stores last week.

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.

I am looking for a connection to anyone associated with McDonough Braungart (http://www.mbdc.com/). Wanting to make professional contacts with this in

Alison's Contribution:

I'm not sure if I'm making this too easy*, but if you Google the firms name, there is a reference to

http://www.mcdonough.com/full.htm

which has a link straight to William McDonough. Instead of selling yourself to several people along the way, perhaps you can give him a call directly and only have to do it once.

Hope this helps.

Alison Murray
*no I don't think it's really this easy, but I hope this gets you started

How does one frame a question so as to maximize the number and quality of responses?

Alison's Contribution:

As another person interested in the Art of Communication, you'll know that I believe that there are a set of rules (algorithms) which if followed will improve both the quantity and quality of our thinking - both for Askers and for Answerers. I've stated these off the top of my head as a set of principles.

1. State it as a positive challenge aimed at mobilising a group (ask for action within a given time period)
2. Make the complex simple and understandable
3. Leave room for someone to contribute their viewpoint which might just be a better way

I think this covers the who, what, where, when, why and how of it. I wish I had a bit of wit to inspire everyone. The only thing I can think of is "the squeaky wheel may get greased, but if you change the way you "squeak", you may get a better class of oil.

Let me know what you come up with.

Alison
Clarification added May 28, 2007:
Just so you know, that quote was made on 28 May 2007 by Alison Murray - feel free to use it when appropriate.

What are the challenges to getting a book published and becoming successful?

Alison's Contribution:

Interesting questions - but getting published is the easy part - check out www.lulu.com who print books on demand and have a kind of viral referral system going.

As I happens, I'm in the middle of getting started to write a book who's time has come. Most of my challenges have to do are about making time to focus on getting words down on paper. Like all authors who take pride in their work I want it to be valuable contribution so getting some feedback is vital.

In terms of getting exposure/success (which I have taken to mean sales)- that certainly is a challenge. Of the hundreds of thousands of books which get publised, few sell more than 10,000 copies.

Is there a best way? I don't know. Certainly the rounds of talk shows, book clubs and every marketing ploy out there have to be a good thing - does You Tube have book readings and reviews?

Networking Tips

Alison's Contribution:

I'm not suer what your question is but assume that is something along the lines of "How many great Networking tips can we come up with in a week?"

I for one would appreciate a list of all..

And yes, my tip is that if you are going to blast your network (from 1 to man) with something - give them a positive action to take with a deadline. You are more likely to get a real response rather than the "Thanks that was interesting."/"Yes (wo)men" feedback.

Alison Murray
Clarification added May 28, 2007:
My apologies for the typos - my machine is in the shop and this keyboard doesn't "fly" as quickly. Plus I've lost my Google Spell check. So SURE, and MANY hit me like a slap in the face.

I think there's an art to asking a question so that it gets the results you want.

Curiousity: What's the ratio of Positive "DOs" to Negatives? I'm doing a Triple P - Positive (Teenage) Parenting Programme and have re-discovered that if you find the least little thing to praise and state things with a positive intention (NLP), you'll get the result you seek. Anyone else notice the same thing?

How did Ron Bates (Linked In) get 32,000 connections? With the Linked In system, aren't you

Alison's Contribution:

There are a couple of factors which come into play - how many people you introduce and how many people elect to send an invitation to connect to you.

The number of candidates I look at can vary from 50 to 1,000 a day. Depending on how many fit my criteria and how much time I have, I try to drop them a line letting them know that I spotted them, and offer some pointers (including using Linked In). So I can see how it's very easy to get to 30,000 inside a couple of years.

On the flip side, being at the top of the TopLinked list and providing the reach across LinkedIn means that Ron gets lots of invitations to link. I'm pretty sure he accepts all of them. I choose not to.

I find it interesting that many members seem to have an underlying assumption that everyone should use LinkedIn the way they think they should. I think there are different kinds of value to be had from using it in different ways, so it's not a "one size fits all" type of service.

So, if you wanted to build a network of 20,000, I would suggest you

1. Put a link in your email signature and a strap line of "Invite me to Link" or something like it.
2. Invite every single candidate your firm encounters to LinkedIn and have them link to you.
3. When ever you are at an industry event, ask others if they use LinkedIn and get them to invite you.

where does a phone number go?

Alison's Contribution:

You can put your phone number anywhere and as many times you like in your profile. If you are looking for calls, I suggest you put it as near the top as possible as I'm sure many people don't read down the whole profile.

Some people put it in their name field, but I understand that this, and email addresses are no longer accepted. However, in terms of what gets exported, only the names, job titles, company and email addresses are available for import into other systems so you may want to make sure it is posted in one of them.

Hopefully they will get around to those who "trick" the system by using non alphabetic characters !!(. etc which mess up the alphabetical order of things.

Invitations .. from various individuals .. what and why?

Alison's Contribution:

Here's my two cents.

First - as to why there has been an increase in invitations. I suspect it has to do with your recent exposure on Answers. (I don't believe that many people have just learned how to search.)

Second - as to why they would invite you to link. With the way that Linked In works, extending your reach across the now 11M+ members is an almost full time activity for some people (dare I say recruiters). Others assume that if you have made your email address public that you'll link to anyone.

Third - how I respond to invitations. For me, it depends on how I feel at the time and how much time and effort I feel they have spent on a personalised approach. Many I let expire - particularly the one liners from recruiters who have not noticed that I don't link with my competition unless we have some sort of partnership agreement or I know them personally. I suspect many others are the same.

This is about as much input as I've got this morning. As Mother Teresa said "I know God will not give me anyting I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."

Will you like to use LinkedIn on your mobile ?. Should it be a downloadable application (Java, BREW .....) OR just a .mobi website will do ?

Alison's Contribution:

I use LinkedIn on my N800 tablet which is where I think the world is headed. When the semantic web and UI designers wrap their heads around the opportunities I think we'll see real progress. Right now too many people are caught up with fiddling around with things.

So NO, I don't think the Grey space around the YOUR ANSWER section was worth much - Less white space, more functionality (and on screens with fewer lines per page it means fewer screens to scroll). In short, LI need to get their UI for PCs/MACs more user friendly before recreating something for a WAP/mobile phone platform

Do you know any Agents or Agencies for Film Music Composers?

Alison's Contribution:

I remember reading an article a couple of years ago about how hard it is for composers to find their next job and then work with the team. I have not run across a specific firm. However, I think the best people to network with are the ones who get the start up crew in order - I'm thinking at the Director, Executive Producers stage. I suggest you also network with these and the next couple of tiers of people helping them do a fantastic job. There are some of these kinds of people on LinkedIn, but you're more likely to find them through the creative agencies.

Getting "found" is a crucial element here. So you're definitely someone who wants to link with all the popular places - YouTube, MySpace, etc.

I also assume your email signatures have a "strap line" to your latest greatest sounds!

What's up with people refusing to connect? Confused...

Alison's Contribution:

You sound frustrated that people don't use LinkedIn the way you want them to. You haven't said how many invitations have been accepted this year. If it's the full 952, then I'd say your numbers are better than the average responses to Introductions and Inmails. So congratulate yourself - even if it was only half of your total, you should be giving yourself a pat on the back for sheer dedication if nothing else.

Please don't think I'm around the bend - let's get real. Recruiters are classed in the same category as telesales people pushing double glazed windows, new telephone contracts and like lawyers, best grouped at the bottom of the sea by many people - at least until they are really actively looking for a career move. "Don't call us, we'll call you".

Secondly, LinkedIn is a utility which anyone can use anyway they wish. I know lots of people who have "split" personalities simply because they forgot they were members, the email address is old and they have yet to receive your invitation. I don't know the numbers, but I'd say that at the current growth rates roughly 10-20% have been members for less than 3 months and therefore don't know yet how to use it to maximum advantage; 30% have not used it in over 18 months and of the remaining 50-60% (6MILLION users), less than 5% use it actively (which I have arbitrarily defined as being once a week) and over 50% of these are recruiters... So if you follow the math, the most active users are recruiters (no brainer); 30% of the information is not active.

I would be more interested in understanding how many of the candidates you've contacted have Joined LinkedIn as a result of their interaction with you. To me, this is a more useful metric than connecting with people already here. WHAT? WHY? you ask.

I only figured out recently that you can find anyone's public profile by doing a simple Google search outside LinkedIn and then you can use InMail to contact them. site:Linkedin.com [boolean search]. So whilst it's advantageous to extend your reach as far as possible, it seems as someone else has pointed out that there is far too much general contact which has tainted approaches with the "I'm being Spammed complaint."

Doing the right things well and figuring how to get a better result by doing something different is my inclination. Hopefully your question has sparked some ideas. Best of luck.

Alison Murray

BTW, I've done a two pager based on Guy Kawasaki's blog about How to Use LinkedIn, let me know if you want read it - it's more about the How to than my whimsical Answer here.

Do you think that corporate affiliations should be shown in LinkedIn Answers?

Alison's Contribution:

You've raised an important issue. Certainly I have found it necessary from time to time to point out that I'm offering personal views. One would like to think that the "Answers" posted here would not be taken out of context, but we can't guarantee it.

So, I support your desire to become "just a person with some answers to offer" - no doubt because it's in line with my (personal) philosophy of "Take what you need and give what you can without thought of reward or thanks".

Building on your idea, perhaps we could have an automatic disclaimer that our Answers are based on our knowledge, personal viewpoint and emotional state at the time of answering and that the answer may change or be constructed differently in the future. I've played around with this for the last 5 minutes but instead of making the complex simple, I seem to be making it more convoluted. Perhaps you can come up with a simple homily to explain what's needed.

What details do you think do attract / dissuade them potential recruiters?

Alison's Contribution:

Responding on a personal basis, we're all looking for candidates who stand out head and shoulders above the rest of the competition for the same job.

I cut my teeth on my career change in finding out what was NOT on the CV. Having a candidate who knows themselves well enough to put it on their cv shows the level of maturity and self-awareness which are essential components of a great employee placement.

As to where the thin line falls I think it's like the waterline of the tide - different clients will fall in the scale of low tide and high tide.

Happy to discuss further off line if you like. Certainly I'm a believer that humour is the quickest way to connect two people, but I'm feeling a bit out of witty thoughts to pass on this morning.

Should users of LinkedIn hide their connections?

Alison's Contribution:

I respect your right to have your opinion and I hope you'll respect my right to have a different position. I think that you can focus your energy by searching for the types of contacts you need to make, rather than waste tons of time scrolling through pages and pages of information. I won't make the obvious inference that in my shoes you simply want to "rape" my network.

NB: If LinkedIn was a Directory service, I'd still feel the same, but I probably would not link with so many people.

For instance, unless you know how a person has put in their name (with/without special characters, extra information), you won't know if that person comes at the last name marker or at the beginning or end. There is no option to just see people at Company X for an individual contact, so trying to find contacts at a particular company are impossible; also it only gives you the current company, so if they just updated their profile, it wouldn't show anymore.

I suggest you try the ADVANCED SEARCH option. User Boolean operators in UPPER case (AND, OR) and remember that NOT="-" so if you were looking for clients, I would suggest something like "Risk Manager" AND (finance OR bank OR Investment OR Hedge); with mine, you'd have to narrow the focus as there are over 500 results. There is no way I could have gotten to this list just browsing the "telephone" directory of my contacts. Why, well because just doing this type of errands forgets that you can connect to someone you wouldn't even have know about - eg a 3rd level contact.

Apologies if you feel my passionate response rubs you the wrong way. I just think you are having a fight about the wrong thing. There are so many important issues - how to ensure the information is up to date, how to ensure the information is accurate, how to verify the information, etc, etc.

I think I give plenty back, but I suspect you'll have to ask the people in my network what they think.

Alison Murray
Clarification added May 22, 2007:
apologies - that should have been "would not have even KNOWN about" - now if I could just get that thought to screen input device, I would not have to worry about my fingers keeping up with my brain.

How does answers work?

Alison's Contribution:

Ask a Question
1. You get the option of a headline and then further clarification. You decide at this point whether it is public or private (only sent to people you know).
2. Then you post your question to the most relevant categories which will attract Answers.
3. Next, you wait for Answers which generally come in a few categories:
- Quick and / or Flippant
- Thoughtful / Food for Thought
- Interesting but not really Answering the question posed by the Asker

Note you can repeat a question after the seven day window or you can close it before the deadline when you've got the answer(s) you seek. [What makes a great question depends on your purpose and the subject of a different question.]

Handling Answers
Answerers can elect to respond privately or publicly (which also includes the option of writing a private note to the Asker).

Whilst Answers are pouring in, the Asker can correspond with the Answerer. Both the Asker and the Answerer(s) can add clarification to their posting. Answerers can elect to delete their post, but cannot post a different answer to the same question.

Closing a Question
When you have closed a question, an Asker is requested to select all the "Good Answers" and one "Best Answer". These "scores" are saved against the Answerers profile (if they have made their status public).


Complicated?
No, it really is not complicated. A testament to it's deceptively simple structure is that hundreds of questions are asked everyday. The community at LinkedIn does it best to answer general questions where they can offer some insight. However, some specialist questions may not get a response.

I haven't gone into the technical side of How Answers works as I believe you are more interested in the User Experience.

The question "What does Answers do?" hasn't been asked, but if you are interested, get in touch and I'll do my best to provide my opinion.

How to decline an invitation?

Alison's Contribution:

thought your question was going to be about the fact that there is a distinct lack of a "NO THANKYOU" option on the invitation - you either have to say "I don't know this person" or "Decide later" and let it expire.

I've now read the question and reviewed the LinkedIn purported raison d'etre:
"Through your network you can:
Find potential clients, service providers, subject experts, and partners who come recommended
Be found for business opportunities
Search for great jobs
Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
Post and distribute job listings
Find high-quality passive candidates
Get introduced to other professionals through the people you know "

I understand the antinomic nature of just linking to close associates vs "getting found" or "finding opportunities/people". I would have to say that I fall in the latter camp - except for recruitment where I am in a competitive market so I'm in the first camp.

Day to Day, I look for technical staff (who often have less than 20 connections here at LinkedIn), so the more islands of technologists that I can connect, the better!

My take on the situation is that LinkedIn started out with the intention of linking close associates as their career diverged; the recruitment industry figured out that it was a good source of information (as with Zoominfo.com); now it is being used in many different ways by many people. Revenue streams flow from job adverts and premium accounts, so LinkedIn will need to "follow the money" (particularly when so many people are clamouring for more from a "free" site).

If LinkedIn was a directory service where I could find the people I wanted, then I would side with you and only connect with people I knew well. However, in order to reach across 10million+ people to find the best candidates, it's necessary to find enough connections. Even with a business account, it is impossible to know whether you are reaching the best candidates for open positions (perhaps that could be addressed with a hidden actively seeking green pastures state).

Hope this helps you understand why some of us don't use LinkedIn the way that you prefer. Obviously, it is up to the individual to make their own choices - which may depend on how you feel at the time, how much you feel you can trust the invitee, how comfortable you are in your present position, etc, etc.

Thank you for the opportunity to understand your thinking. It goes to show that everyone can break the right rule for the right reasons sometimes, but you need to make sure they aren't breaking it for the wrong reasons.

Text Editing in LI - potential to improve...

Alison's Contribution:

"Why not improve for the sake of everybody who wants to share his knowledge?" I think is the question in your list of improvements you would like to see. For this answer I'm going to be taking the view point that if it is not a detriment to LinkedIn functionality, it's a cosmetic want rather than a show-stopping Have 2 Have.

As a free service, I think LinkedIn is pretty good. It's not a CRM system (and does not profess to be one). Here's my response

A: A small text frame helps keep answers short and focused - Well Done LinkedIn!
B: Basic Text Editing - Hard to keep the brain in synch with the fingers at any time, but then you have to decides which set of short cut keys you're going to use.
C: Spell Checker - not needed - either edit your text in your word processor of choice or use the Google Tool Bar which lets you spell check any form text (you could hardly expect me to say anything else, could you)?
D: Saving - again I think we've all had this problem, but LinkedIn's AJAX implementation is no different than 1000s of others. Being able to save a draft would be a boon (along with a notice that one had drafts not yet published). The only pragmatic work around I've found is to save "important to me" Answers in a WP and come back - the Copy to Clipboard before Submitting also works.
E: Formating - I vote no - some people's idea of what emphasises their work leaves me reeling - also for my future LinkedIn anywhere anytime, my platforms of choice (tablets) will have to cope.
F: Signatures - as for A - this is not an email or CRM not needed.

About the only thing I'd like to see when reading answers is for the whole screen to be used - eg a smaller left hand margin for names - so that there are fewer screenfuls of information to digest.

Guess this just goes to show that we can all find ways of suggesting improvements. However, I think it's really important to figure out if this is THE BATTLE worth fighting for in the big list of improvements which LinkedIn's Investments will be spent. The questions I would ask are :
- Will it make more people use Answers?
- Will it attract more people to Linked In?
- Will it generate revenue to sustain the company and their development plans?
- What kind of requirement is it - Show Stopper, Major Enhancement or Merely Cosmetic / Nice to Have (Must Do, Should Do, Could Do)?

As you may have guessed, for me this is a cosmetic enhancement which I probably would not use.

I'm finding that people seem reluctant to join my network (except for my close, immediate contacts) and I'm thinking that its that maybe people don't

Alison's Contribution:

Good question - which I have faced as well. As a tool, LinkedIn provides some great resources which can be used by people in many different ways.

I read your question to mean both current and not yet users of LinkedIn. Where people have not used a on-line tool like LinkedIn, there is certainly some resistance to going on-line. I've got lots of former colleagues who are like this.

I'm one of those who has switched career paths in order to make time for my family. I've certainly found in that there are different perceptions between job functions about how LinkedIn gets used.

If you are looking to expand your already at Linked network quickly, I would recommend going to www.toplinked.com and coming up with a personalised invitation to avoid the "I don't know Mark" response. Just because they have a lot of connections, doesn't mean that they connect to everyone.

Next comes the issue of collaboration or competition with people in the same work arena. Regardless of which side of the fence you're on, I think it's best to come up with a personalised approach.

The last thing which springs to mind is the safety in numbers aspect. For on-line network building, I think it's easier when people can see that you have a number of contacts in common OR that you can extend their reach because you have a network of people to which they don't yet have access.

My final point is to include your linked in Public Profile in every email signature and use it on every email you send. You may find in future that people you run across "never knew" you were on LinkedIn or they may just have found it and then they run across you. Some of my contacts have multiple profiles simply because they forgot they had already signed up.

Hope this helps.

Why are Best Answers so important?

Alison's Contribution:

Good Question. No doubt if you can look at some of my other answers, you'll see that I don't really like the good/best structure of rating answers.

I want to help correct a misunderstanding though - in terms of rating answers there is NO requirement to rate a BEST Answer. There is an option to select "NO BEST ANSWER". However, if you want to rate a BEST answer, you can only select one.

As I have said before, for some questions, the Asker may not be the person best able to rate the BEST Answer precisely because they were not the expert in the first place.

I try to put a lot of thought and helpful advice into my answers. I would like the opportunity to give it away without having to worry whether I think someone else might think it worth rating good. In other words, if I'm asked to have a bias towards answering questions the way I think the Asker wants them, then I'm not providing my real expertise the way the I work.

A different question is whether it is worth changing the system to which I would say no. It's good enough for what it is today as long as you don't rely on it for precise information. I would dearly like to see the de Bono Thinking Hats used - both for Answers to categorise their Answers and for Askers to understand the viewpoint taken by the Answerer. I fear many Answerers get penalised for taking "Black Hat" perspectives which result in a nil-point situation, even thought it was a "Good Answer".

My solution - I rate every answer which show some thought as a "Good Answer" and don't select a BEST Answer. Why? I find it quite disturbing to have metrics for which I have been "graded" - eg the percentage of Good and Best Answers. I would like to value everyone who responded equally and have to make the assumption that they provided the best insights they could at the time.

Expert or LinkedIn addict?

Alison's Contribution:

You've made an interesting question generate some interesting observations. I'm always interested in the how this happens, so here's my take on whether the quantity gives way to the quality of answers (not sure if you meant that in reverse).

My chief concern is that when a few people have answered 150 plus questions per week for a year that others will be put off the attempt to help - particularly in the categories which have a lot of questions at present. It has already been observed that 1) questions in a particular field are not asked in this forum (eg don't ask questions which would get a response from one's peer group and 2) that many questions asking for expert input get little response.

There are a few categories which have a lot of questions each week - particularly "how to use linked in", "staffing & recruiting" and general questions of life which often don't fall in any particular category but are tagged to the categories which the Asker believes will get the best response.

No doubt there are new but repeated questions "how do I contact someone", "how do I delete/merge my accounts", etc for which a previously given Answerer's response is equally valid and fresh to the Asker. For this, a simple cut and paste guarantees the quality is consistent (and if one happens to get a few best answers along the way, this indicates that the Askers believe they gave the best response). At the same time, it increases "productivity" in the quantity ratings.

Whether or not the Best Answers category makes one a "Top Expert" is a completely different questions and probably worth asking. As mentioned before, I suspect that the numbers of responses has more to do with getting recognition of lending a helping hand or another motive/need which I have not yet understood.

So, as to whether any of this makes one an addict or expert I make the final observation that there is often a fine line between the two in many industries. I look for people who have a passion for technology and clearly identify myself as a gadget girl. I suspect that others would think that I'm just a novice, albeit addicted. What I would say is that if the list of names doesn't change week to week there is certainly an element of dedication for a non-money making activity. I'd like to think that it is the best way for them to spend their spare time.

Why did they ask this question ?!? I've been questioned about why I am interviewing for a position that is only a fragment of my work experiences

Alison's Contribution:

You didn't mention whether this is a contract or a permanent position. As someone who looks for great software engineers/developers/coders (what ever you want to call them), I have a slightly different perspective. 

Rightly or wrongly, many people (and companies) see coding as being at the bottom of the totem pole so to speak. They may not "get" that writing elegant code is an art form equivalent to creating an awe inspiring sculpture. Great problem solving skills and loving challenges are things I seek. I'll stop here about that, but I think you'll know at what I'm hinting. 

The easiest way to understand motives as to why questions are asked is simply ask for clarification "What are your concerns?"/"What is your chief concern?"/"Help me understand your concern of me having to code 90% of the time" /"Have you got any other concerns?" and then take each one in turn. 

I know this is easy to say after the event, so keep it in your kit bag for the next interview. If you really want the job/contract that got away, I would call directly and ask for a second interview including your peer group. 

If it was a case that you didn't do very well in the coding test, then I wouldn't bother, but since you are a cracking coder, you have to NOT be backwards at putting yourself forward - obviously on the line of "I'm so keen to get my hands back into full time coding that I'd like another chance to prove to you that I'm the best person for the position." 

Hope this helps - let me know how you get on. 

Feeling unimportant.

Alison's Contribution:

Someone told me a long time ago that "no one could pay you what you are worth", so I feel it's important to separate money from your identify. One saying we have is that "money cannot buy you happiness" and I fear you are recognising the signs that this tenet will always be true. 

If you are in category 1, I would look to use your talents outside your day to day job. Get a hobby which benefits from your unique talents which are going unused, under valued and rusting away to nothing. 

I wish I had the perfect answer for you, but I have found that you never feel better than when you give away or help someone else, so you'll have to look inside for your perfect answer. 

An yes in case you are wondering, answering questions at LinkedIn is one way which helps me make use of talents which would otherwise not have an outlet. I hope you'll see that I'm simply trying to help - I don't care whether I get paid or not. 

What suggestions can you make for prepping to take the GMAT exam?

Alison's Contribution: I can suggest the following which was pretty much what I did 10 years after graduating:

First: Understand how your answers will be scored.
1. Brush up on the maths equations and facts set, how to answer types of information - there are some good on-line resources.
2. Buy one of the practice test books and sit through them in the way you would sit the exam - even so far as filling in answers on a separate answer sheet.
3. I can't remember the acronym, but look up the technique for answering questions to get the highest possible score. I believe it has the following steps:
a) Answer the ones you can do quickly.
b) Guess - eg eliminate two choices and then take the best guess for the two remaining if you can't work it out.
c) Work through the ones you have found difficult.
d) With any remaining time, check through your answers.
4. Arrive with plenty of time, something to drink and a snack to keep the energy flowing. Have extra pencils, erasers, etc. and everything else you need.

Panic: If you panic, close your eyes and take a deep breath, hold for 10 seconds and then let it out (or any other breathing mantra) to focus your energy. (Practice these techniques so that you can utilise them in the test situation.)

According to something I read, your scores will be decreased if you don't answer all the questions, so it's important that you learn how to make an educated guess in the time available.

Afterwards: As always, know that you did your best on the day, no one can ask more from you, so don't beat yourself up afterwards. Just congratulate yourself on doing the best job you could.

What's a good answer to the question "What's your biggest fault"?

Alison's Contribution:

To me an answer is only good if it's the truth for you. 

So I would start with "My biggest fault that I recognise today is "... You might also want to say "The biggest fault I had when I was younger was ..., and I overcame that by "... 

I think this is one of those questions where the non verbal behaviour will be viewed as much as your response. 

What do the words "Our timber is procured only from forests that have been sustainably harvested" mean to you?

Alison's Contribution:

Interesting question; having glanced at some of the responses, it's one of those phrases which gets interpreted in all sorts of ways. What it means to me is that for every tree going out of the forest that others are being planted so that the forest will survive intact. 

I'm not sure about the differentials in O2 vs CO2 production, but I'm sure someone can come up with an equation which shows how many trees need to be planted this year in order to tax X trees out in Y year's time in order to ensure that the forest is not working on a deficit basis. There may be other factors to bear in mind as well, but I'm sure someone can figure out the environmental impact

What position should I pursue to not be forced to work more than 3 days a week?

Alison's Contribution:

ou seem to have generated a wide range of responses from different people. I can think of lots of positions which could be done part time or job shared. I would like to clarify whether you plan to work long days - get 12/16 hour days for 3 days vs 24 hours a week; this would open up a completely different range of options. 

As a complete digression, I also think it's a fact of working life that a significant chunk of time is spent doing things outside the job for which people have been hired. 

Back to your quest - the easiest ones for me to think about are those dealing with personal services and instructors - massage, beauty, fitness, yoga, etc. The next vein of rich rewards are in consulting - particularly project administration/testing/training/development/operations (where you might want to consider contracting for a couple of months and then taking a few months off). There may be a growing market for those who are willing to work unsociable hours in order to keep our world moving forward both in terms of information flows and logistics. 

Hope this helps you generate some good options for your financial future. I applaud your ability to separate making money from your identity as a person. 

What's are the best habits to have to help build and maintain a personal brand?

Alison's Contribution:

What an interesting question. Here's a compilation of ideas off the top of my head. Guy Kawasaki is someone you might want to look at - he's done a fantastic job of personal branding! 

1. Use your NAME as your company name, web site name, etc etc... Effectively the company is you, so it makes sense to make its name, values, expertise what people associate with you. 

2. Promote yourself - use a blog on your web-site (rather than a 3rd party hosted site) to move traffic to you. Use response based emails to drive traffic, initiate commenting on articles, etc. 

3. Find your niche and stick with it - what ever it is that gets you that buzz, make sure you promote it everywhere you can. Everyone will have their own internal buzz and if you can figure out a way to enable everyone else to "get you" quickly, you'll know it by their responses. 

4. Persistent development/promotion of your messages. I heard someone say recently that they had not had an original idea in years. Even so, they have access to audiences who have either not heard their ideas yet or haven't heard them in so long that they relish the thought of reliving the experience. 

I think the habits are about your attitude, consistency, persistence and hopefully some catchy ways of expressing yourself. Though I haven't done a fantastic job tonight, NLP techniques combined with Myers Briggs personally message targeting will help ensure you keep as much as your audience as possible. 

Happy to learn a lot along the way, so if anyone has some radically different ideas, please feel free to contact me. 

What do you think about Seth Godin's philosophy of asking advice?

Alison's Contribution:

Asking for advice/feedback is great. 

My opinion of the article is that we need to think about how we think. As Seth points out, many people only feel comfortable in only one main mode of thinking - eg always critical, always looking for the positive. 

I wonder how much better the world would be if we honed our thinking skills so that we could view all problems and solutions from multiple viewpoints. 

No doubt you'll get tired of me pointing to deBono Thinking Hats - it's the best resource I've found for a universally understood system of thinking. Thank the educators who are using it in schools so that children will be able to spot their own styles as well as the styles of those around them. 

What are the best resources for identifying contacts within companies?

Alison's Contribution:

Here are a couple of suggestions: 

- ZoomInfo has a lot of information, though you may need to pay for the information if you are drilling down (though I don't know about it's global coverage). 

- Industry conferences often have contact names for exhibitors (thought these may be more sales oriented

Who has viewed your Profile (Beta) ? - is this the reason to upgrade our accounts?

Alison's Contribution:

There have been a number of good points made so far. I think this feature gives everyone an opportunity to be much more creative as well. For those with just a bare bones profile, perhaps it will inspire them to divulge a bit more in order to "get found" - whether they are selling their products and services or looking for their next career challenge. 

As for those who are looking and want to be "found in reverse", you can always categorise yourself differently or clock yourself as in "someone in the media production industry" which seems pretty anonymous to me. 

However I think having the option of specifying whether you are in stealth mode or not could be confusing - particularly if you have to keep switching back and forth because you just don't know what you are going to find until you are on their page. 

I think I saw something over the week-end which indicated that different accounts have different privileges - eg free could only see one person who had looked at their profile. Certainly I would like the ability to see who had looked at the profile in either the day or the last week. 

The other thing which would be useful is to see the number of public profile hits - possibly as an absolute number as it would indicate how visible one was outside one's own network. 

Hope this is interesting food for thought. 

Consider skipping HR recruiting person as a part of your Linkedin network

Alison's Contribution:

I'm not sure what your question is, but isn't it great that a tool like LinkedIn can be used in so many different ways by so many people? Gone are the straight-jackets of formalised database usage! Hooray! 

For me, I love connecting islands of technologists and other professionals - many of who don't know each other because they are too busy making new things. 

As an Entrepreneur, I would have thought you would want to extend your reach as widely as possible - new sales leads, possible partnerships, and of course contact points for investment ideas. 

The world is flat?

Alison's Contribution:

“Leandro I assume you've read the whole book. I think for some professionals the world is getting flatter but geographically nations are putting up the barriers to entry. Corporations who act globally have flattened their world internally and I think this will continue down the food chain with smaller firms working in partnership/licencing internationally. One real trick is going to be harnessing problem solving / collaboration issues for people who work together but don't actually meet in "real life"

What recourse do we have when prople are listed as working for Fabcon, but have either left or have never worked here?

Alison's Contribution:

I sympathise with your predicament. Besides the near naming conventions (deliberate or not), there are a few people who will seek to impress! (No doubt other universities face the plight London Business School - luckily I can check the alumni site for real graduates). 

I can only suggest forming a group - an Official Fabcon Group and administrate it. That way all current employees could be part of the group and have access to each other. I don't think you can get them to update their profile on leaving, but you can remove them from the group. 

Should beta testing first bring answers to marketing or to engineering?

Alison's contribution:

I'm assuming that your focus groups/alpha tests have already determined what was needed for the longer term - so Mareting have their priorities already. 

I would personally concentrate on getting the product to market as bug free as possible with a suggestion box/feedback for 

"if there was one additional thing you'd like us to release next, what would it be" types of questions/multiple choice answers. That way, both interest groups would be getting useful intelligence.

Have you seen good Mobile Learning applications or places where "Mobile Learning" would be a good solution?

Alison's Contribution:

Great Question. For me, it's a variety including off the top of my head 
- the whole of the school curriculum and revision for GCSE and A Levels. 
- any language 
- NLP and other communication tools 
- memory processing 
- brain training / stimulus 
- scheduling tasks 

I can see applications for both the young and "old yet agile". In between I see the kinds of self help types of programmes - negotiation, communication, etc, etc. 

The trick will be how to make the information stick, so I would imagine that it will be using both screen and audio to output to the user and kinetic (stylus, touch) to confirm understanding. 

No doubt some HCI experts might be able to help.

How can a HR manager prevent an employee from leaving another firm ?

Alison's Contribution:

Could you clarify please. I read this as you want the employee to stay with their other employer and not join your firm. If this is the case, then there's not a lot you can do. 

If it's a case of not having them leave your firm, money is not the usual motivating factor - many have already been offered. Here are some others I didn't spot: Lack of a challenge, better career prospects / training programming, better working environment/telecommuting, etc. Again, not a lot you can do if their mind is made up. 

My plan: Stack the odds on my side. Graciously accept the resignation, wish them well and let them know they are always welcome back if it turns out to be a wrong move or it becomes the right time to return. (Stats show that more than half of those that stay for the pay rise leave withing 18 months AND that more than 10% quit/are fired in the first week.) 

Can LinkedIn confirm the 80/20 rule?

Alison's contribution:

I believe that the 80/20 rule works differently with answers and could be any of a number:

- Only 20% of people who answer regularly will answer an individual question of interest after they have read it for a variety of reasons (having nothing else to add, looking to help someone who has not received answers yet, etc) 
- Up to 20% prefer to reply privately upon occasion, so you'll never know whether their answer was the best. 
- Up to 80% of people will respond to questions which trigger their own orientation - so "fighters" will argue, "debaters" will debate, etc, etc 
- Up to 80% of people will ignore questions where the obvious answer has already been given - the How do I quit, change email address kinds of questions. 
- Up to 20% of questions never receive an answer - whether that is SWOQ sheer weight of questions, no one understands the question is anyone's guess. 

What I think Linked In can confirm is that 
- Less than 20% of it's membership log in every day for say 2 hours at a time. 
- Less than 5% of those who answer questions spend more than 1 hour per day doing so. 
- Less than 20% have asked more than 3 questions. 

You'll see from other answers the dislike of a qualitative answer scoring system - because just like some jury trials, the asker may not be qualified to judge the best answer. 

Some people take it seriously - and I think it's seriously funny how I respond when someone rewards me with a "best" - even though I know the psychology says that the giving was it's own reward and recognition was not needed. My fear is that having a number of people who regularly answer 100-200 questions a week might put off others who would contribute more. 

So yes, you can use the 80/20 like any other statistic, as long you know the problem you are trying to solve or point you want to prove. No doubt there's a bit of wit I've overlooked or a meaningful quote; I just haven't got the spare time right now to think of where to look for it. - so 20% of the time I could give will give 80% of the best answer I might construct... So many Answers to give away, so little time....

LinkedIn membership "Values & Principles"...?

Alison's contribution:

I would like to value differences of opinions and diversity. My personal belief is that the kind of values you need are 

- truth 
- credibility 
- verifiability 

I would not like to impose any others. Why? 

1. You'll be able to spot those who don't hold the same values more easily than those who simply won't tell you the truth. 

2. Alienating large segments of some genres of users. There have been questions as to why particular industries and functions do not use LinkedIn. I hypothesise that this is because it doesn't "do it" for them. 

3. Let me repeat - Trying to impose values & principles on 10 million people probably won't fly and you'll have now way of know if someone is lying... which is the crux of the problem. 

Wearing a Fix-It QUICK Solution Hat: 

a) Use the Command & Control functions to impose the rules which can be quantified - no spamming, etc. 

b) Use the spirit of LinkedIn to build the Integrity of the majority of the member base. 

c) Don't rely on it as the sole source of information upon which to base business decisions. 

d) Don't expect LinkedIn to be a one size fits all solution for everyone which only works like a telegraph system. 


Hope this adds to the discussion. 

How Many of You Are Ready to Get Something Started?

Alison's contribution:

Jump - as long as I was convinced I could contribute to the cause. 

Love to see how you think a collective intellect and ingenuity could make a difference. 

Mobile TV, how to reach the masses

Alison's Contribution:

I think Barbara has summed it up well. Slight digression: Historically Japan has been way ahead in the TV stakes - HDTV was up and running there over 15 years ago (even though it started with one channel and I think about 4 hours a day). 

In other words, I think the economic model in Japan has already shifted and the rest of the world has yet to catch up. 

For me the real question is what you will prefer as your mobile TV - a small phone screen or a tablet size "widesceen" with the same, if not better connectivity. I think a lot of consumers will play a "wait and see" game to see if the next generation produces something which will give them another "gadget on the go"** in which to invest. 

What has been your experience with the question and answer features? Has it increased your visibility and have you benefited in promoting your busines

Alison's contribution:

"Ask not what LinkedIn can do for you, Ask What You Can Do for LinkedIn!" The Ask & Answer facility gives us what we need. 

What: In my little spare time, I've enjoyed writing responses to questions of interest (lack of time and a slow input mechanism - 60 wpm prevents me from contributing more). A pat on the email, and thank yous have been graciously given for some responses. Hopefully others will have given a smile or two to participants. 

Visibility - Yes, notably with one or two invitations to connect with those elusive technical and business engineers who want to shift into new paradigms of working smarter (not longer) hours. 

Benefited - Yes, if only to think that I have given away something which someone may find of value, to have read something causes me to wonder how to make things better - because the best available just isn't good enough sometimes. I'm also compiling a series of articles based on my answers (usual style 1/2 pagers/blog style). I have used some of my answers to compile favourite quotations.... 

I'm at a low ebb right now, so I'm off to read a bit more of Beautiful Child - my book of the week. 

My philosophy - Take what you need, give what you need without thought of thank you or reward. 

Is it important to reply to every answer to the question you have asked ?

Alison's Contribution:

 have to rely on my internal principle system "Take what you need, give what you can without thought of reward or thankyou in the giving." to guide me. Why, 

Because my heart says yes, my head says no. 

Is it courteous? - Yes AAH, but Is it Important?, that is the question... 

How does it make me feel? That is a different question altogether and the answer is "it depends". A well crafted courteous thank you with something of mutual interest or insights from others is appreciated. Sometimes the resulting conversations are even more interesting that the original A&A. 

So in sum, if you have the time to thank, do so with grace. If you don't, don't worry - it's not like you cheated on your taxes, is it? 

What are the PDA killer apps?

Alison's Contribution:

'm answering this as an individual and here's my list of wants for killer apps for my Nokia 800 - All of these could be classed under a, b, c, or d categories. 

1. Ability to download sections of webs to read/work off-line - inbetween hotspots. For instance LinkedIn on Wireless would be great - even better if you could save your answers and synch once you got back in range. 
2. Contact management - synching between systems - the ultimate replication ripple - even better if I can blue tooth the numbers to my phone so it can dial mobile numbers. This needs to be linked to email conversations, to-do lists and calendar. 
3. Wireless voip 
4. Voice or thought input** for word processing / editing of documents on the run - simple emails, blogs, etc. 

Hope this helps. 

Alison Murray 

**work has started in this area, but it may be years before we see consumer gadgets.

Clarification added April 25, 2007:

Just thought of two more 
5. Mobile TV (obvious isn't it?) 
6. Simultaneous language translation - voice to screen/voice between two peopel speaking different languages... OK, it may not be seen as a killer application yet, but I can see the day coming where we wonder why someone hadn't invented it years ago.

If the internet stopped working, what would YOU do?

Alison's Contribution:

Great Question! I thought it was just me that was locked out of LinkedIn, so I'm glad to hear it was a bigger problem. Here's my take 

We could probably survive individually for about 7 days. After 7 days, we'd have acclimatised somewhat to using off line information just like we used to BI (Before the Internet). Within 2 weeks, we'd have best selling lists full of maps/directories (particularly if people thought it was going to be three months until the Internet got back up). 

Banks - would operate individually so little change except in operations, authentication (huge loop holes for fraudsters), but basic operations could be done at branch level as it used to be and data fedexed /faxed in 
Airlines - again operations okay. On-line Ticketing systems would be undermanned. 
Supermarket Ordering systems - again fax comes to the rescue. 

I think we are far less dependent on the Internet than you fear. 

How would my individual business cope? Hard one to be in - I'd probably take a holiday if I knew it was going to be only a month. I'd go back to the drawing board if it weren't. On line recruitment/searching is the norm now. 

If I decided to work, I'd depend on the phone and fax lines much more. So I'd might someone to help with just that side of things. 

Does it devalue LinkedIn when people connect just for the sake of increasing their connections?

Alison's Contribution:

I'm with Corey on this one. If LinkedIn were a Directory, I'd probably be on your side. However, 

Connections = Information growing exponentially 

So for Knowledge Based Industries, Linked In requires them to have lots of connections simply because it might just open the right door of opportunity. 

For technologists, I think many prefer to stay in their own "islands" (and use people like me help connect them to other islands of technologists at a safe distance - much they way I deal with other recruiters). 

For my industry of choice right now (recruitment), I dare say you it might be a case of don't call me, I'll call you when I need you. 

The question I ask when evaluating invitations is whether this person's profile and mutual connections inspire trust. I only show shared contacts because I think if need the directory, you'll search for someone. 

I wish I could come up with a witty metaphor right now, but I'm stuck on trying to make something with "Doors" in it work - doors of opportunity are the best I can do for now, perhaps it will spark a thought in return. 

Do you accept invitations to Link(ed)In from people whom you don't know? If so, what is your expectations and what have the results been?

Alison's Contribution:

The great thing about LinkedIn is that individuals can choose how they want to manage their own networks. Yes, it might be even better if we had categorisations like "trusted", "inner circle", "met once", "disliked/not trusted", "unknown" - but I'm happy to have what I've got thus far. 

I tend to not link with recruiters if I have not got a partnership agreement in place. I also tend to decide later if a person's profile is not polished. Ultimately there is no logic to this because there is a) no validation of the information posted on LinkedIn and b) often the brightest people say the least about themselves (unlike me). 

The problem I believe needs to be solved is "HOW TO GET FOUND" when someone needs you, your expertise. LinkedIn's rankings ensure that if you have a profile here, you'll appear near the top of a people name search. LinkedIn is one of many tools I use to try and keep track of the people I've 
- met over the years 
- might be able to help at some point in the future 
- found are interesting 

I'm not sure I follow your logic in deleting contacts. To me, it sounds like you are limiting your future possibilities . However, I would certainly question what happened if someone's profile changed radically. 

For me it's a question of "Do I trust this person to be part of my network?" rather than "Am I going to make money off this person in the next 6 months?" 

For instance, I'm still waiting for some of the technology to catch up with me so that I can build value with people I met years ago. LinkedIn is the tool that best keeps us abreast of the how we can be contacted/what we're up to lately. 

Hope this helps you understand how differently my brain works. Isn't it great that we're all different and that some clever developers have designed a tool like LinkedIn so that we can use it anyway we like? 

Is the business LinkedIn upgrade worth the 20 dollars a month?

Alison's Contribution:

I have a Business Plus account for my own business (executive search). I find that it is good value from time to time in terms of reaching people. I sometimes need the Pro upgrade. Here is my thinking about critical focus factors: 

1) what is the best approach - call, email, LinkedIn 
2) if LinkedIn, is this person's email address active or are they active at LinkedIn (easier to determine if they are active on Answers) 
3) will an Introduction or Inmail get the best response. I often get Introductions which were meant as Invitations and Introductions asking for a referral which has a one liner about passing on someone's detail. 

Quite often I won't hear back from either an Inmail or Introduction - for my industry, that is expected - it's a bit like asking someone if they want a cup of coffee - not right now is the assumption I make. 

So in summary, if you think 3 Inmails can bring real value, then would 10 for $50 be better value if you intend to use it for growing your business. 

One last thing I would like to add is that if an Inmail does not generate a response in 7 days, then you are given another one to use. 

Is it okay to insert a non-question into the "Question" field?

Alison's contribution:

Is your question kind of related to ummh like asking a question instead of providing the answer? 

(Hope you get the "smile in the mind".) 

I just embrace the phenomenal opportunity to ask good questions and share our insights. I suggest Enjoy, Use. Take what you need, give what you can freely without expecting thanks or rewards. 

Changing the name would be a bit like different ways of taking caffeine - some prefer decaff, some need lots of milk, other need sugar to get through the drink. That reminds me, must put the kettle on whilst I pick up this call. 

What key ideas or principles do you remember from the following powerful thinkers?

Alison's contribution:

For me it is about how they altered the quality of other people's thinking- 
using a few words to make a huge impact to alter Peception and Performance. 

How did you get your first contract/ make the first sale for your business?

Alison's contribution:

For me, it was through contacts I had already. Someone I had helped further their career gave me the opportunity to further my busines (at a competitive fee level). 

However, I would say that teaching privately and playing with the local orchestra in university and afterwards was a great education in how to get and retain business. And yes, I think Richard Branson's book Screw It, Let's Do It is one to read and pass onto the kids so that they can start figuring out how to make money for themselves. 

How do you think, the developed nations, many of them with declining population, will remain competitive in global business scene?

Alison's contribution:

Difficult question to answer as I don't think there is a one size fits all solution. Options I can think of include: 

- Paying couples/individuals to have a second or third child 
- Coming up with a radically different mechanism to share takes and raise kids - commune/kibbutz styles for instance 
- Providing free borders work pass/telecommute facilities to a top % of graduates - eg The World is Flat 
- Develop mindsets where individuals would remain healthier far longer than currently (eg massive reduction in major illnesses) 

In summary, I believe remaining competitive is not just about coming up with the latest technological initiatives. It is also about the quality of life and the pursuit of happiness which can be achieved based on personal priorities eg clean air, a green or gun free culture, etc. 

No doubt there will be tensions and climatic problems to resolve along the way. 

Alison Murray 
alisonkmurray @ gmail. com

Clarification added April 16, 2007:

So, you see that I think countries will seek to increase their own population first (even the UK gives a baby bond already on birth which needs to be invested, many countries give a year's paid leave for maternity/paternity leave). Whilst I think "The World is Flat" for some, it won't be flat for all for a very long time. 

In some respects it will be easier to do in a "green field" site (yes - on another inhabitable planet/moon)...

The 3 words (no more) that instantly come to your mind when you think of “Management”?

Alison's Contribution:

Best Talent Required

Do we still need the relational intelligence at work?

Alison's contribution:

What an interesting question! I believe a new form of netiquette is forming around the necessity to somehow connect with people you have yet to meet in person in order to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome. 

So, the short answer is YES, we need a new intelligence (or perhaps to redirect a few of our "little grey cells"). As to the How Tos, that's going to be a bit harder. I think there are a number of mechanisms already being deployed on either an individual or corporate basis. 

Happy to learn more if someone has some good pointers or can point me to someone who's already dealing with this. Otherwise, happy to come up with a "2007 best practices" in collaboration with others. 

You are all familiar with the term "dashboard" for high-level executive views of processes/operational performance, etc. Is there a newer term that is

Alison's Contribution:

Hereafter follows a brief history of High-Level Executive Performance: 

Performance Management is the "name of the game" - as in if you can't measure it you can't manage it (I can't remember which business guru said it first, but it's been used by many.) The trick is to know what to measure as all systems lend themselves to unexpected behaviours based on their reward models. (Let me not digress but happy to swap the did you hear abouts later.) 

However, Performance Management Information System just isn't a good FLA (four letter acronym), so they same up with EIS and charged lots of money. I seem to recall that NCR had a wonderful system Rhapsody I think it was called which would drill down up and sideways - provided you had all the feeder data in it. 

Nolan Norton's Balanced Scorecard was very popular since before 1988 - you can find numerous references to it. (NN were partner firm of KPMG). 
For the manual versions (including many of the "finished reports" output to Excel / Power Point), particularly in the IT arena, it quickly became a dashboard, executive summary, mis summary. However, the use of pictures (traffic lights)/graphs to summarise data lends the name to dashboard over cockpit as a choice of names - particularly given the male/female ratios. 

So, in summary, even if you think "Dashboard" is dated, the alternatives could be either disastrously/hilariously funny depending on your point of view. 

Alison Murray 
NB these opinions are my personal opinions and cannot be attributed to any of the clients or colleagues with whom it's been my privilege to work with over the years. 

Lost work on Linkedin answers

Alison's contribution:

I know many will have had the same frustration. 

Lost work: Be pragmatic, I now copy my answer to the clip board before submitting it - so I can off load to a word processor and save whilst I clear my cache, reboot, get on with other things.... 

Spell check, what can I say other than Google do a forms spell check on our toolbar... Having LI provide it would put additional strain on the systems. 

How to spend our money: I've got lots of brilliant ideas on how to improve the functionality (if only I could get on the alpha test/user group forum). 

I know we all want to share our expertise, knowledge and get our points across. I look at LI like a tweenie - sometimes it wants to be all grown up, but hasn't yet got the skills (technology has to catch up). 

Alison Murray 
murraya @ google . com

Clarification added April 14, 2007:

My apologies - I just spotted that I gave an order : Be pragmatic rather than what I thought I typed which was "Being pragmatic, I now".... Unfortunately, nothing can correct my rather absent mindedness and this time I neglected to re-read before hitting Submit. Fred's also given me some useful food for thought, so it been extremely worth while contributing!

How do to find a job outside your area of expertise?

Alison's Contribution:

A long long time ago, there was a theory that individuals would have a number of careers throughout their life. Many people choose to do an additional degree or MBA in order to switch "gears" - particularly from either a technical role or individual function into a management role. Huge questions, so here's some food for thought. Luckily we are all different so what is of interest to one person isn't very interesting right now to another -which means there are always opportunities if you want to find them! 

Where people have opted out of "corporate world", many come back eventually, so this is one place I'd use a mind map (another question this week) to think about all the options. Many have one or more of the following: 
- a passion for something other than the way they make money to pay the bills 
- a need to to change something for the better (including helping other people/giving back) 
- a huge change in their lives which means that they don't fit into their old lives 

Now to answer your questions (you may note I've answered them in reverse): 

What are your chances of being happier in a new field? Is it the work that's getting you down, or are you already down? eg if you aren't happy in yourself, then you won't be happy anywhere else (so BE HAPPY - read the book if you must) 

How do you prepare for the experience of switching fields? Map it out and do a little ever day. Read, Learn, volunteer, exchange your knowledge for someone else's. Most professions have associations with student membership (including model trains), so scope them out. 

How do you search for things that are interesting when you don't know the ins and outs of the field? Let me ask you a question: What would you be happy doing even if you never earned any money from it and did it up to the day you died? Just about 100 years ago we didn't have electricity, fly, drive cars.... and the challenges we'll face in the next 50 are equally baffling to see from "BEFORE". So figure out what your passion is and go for it; recognise physical limitations as you get older. If you're really stuck, go to the local community college or newpaper and scope the kinds of classes which are being taught. 

How do you convince a new employer that you can do the job when you have limited direct experience in the field? This to me is the easy one - How did you get your first job? How did you get your first management job? 
You can do, you have a track record of excellence. You have interests outside the job. This is about establishing trust and there's a lot of evidence to suggest that complete strangers take about 30 seconds to determine whether they trust each other. So if you are trust worthy, don't talk yourself out of the job. 

BTW, may people get a life coach to help them with this kind of situation. I have a hard time asking for help, so please don't follow my example. 

Happy to stay in touch if you think it would be of value. 

Does anyone use mind mapping for serious, productive work?

Alison's Contribution:

Some secondary schools use Tony Buzan's method here to help students write up their work. 

I use Buzan's tools as a way to check my logic/completeness to think about solving problem. This is a personal tool preference partly because I'm not visually oriented and many of my clients are, so I try to exercise that part of my brain. 

If you are interested, there are lots of other kinds of diagrams. I've provided below a couple of references to keep you going. plus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys (I've started using this one on my son in reverse). 

Alison Murray

Links:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=thought+mapping+tools
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishikawa_diagram
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_cause_analysis

LinkedIn - How to send email to my 2nd and 3rd degree contact

Alison's contribution:

I just want to differientiate between email and spam. I've recently had to delete a couple of first level contacts because they ignored my wish to not received emails for other business/social networking sites. 

LinkedIn has had some problems with a few individuals spamming so please don't confuse the two issues. 

Let me assume that your goal is either 
a- to extend your network of LinkedIn contacts so that you have a wider reach 
b- to contact a few individuals on your 2nd or 3rd level of contacts 

For a - search on www.TopLinked.com and invite people from there to get a wide reach 
For b - send an introduction through your 1st level contacts or buy InMails. 

Would you pay $1 for an idea? Even being aware that the answer may not fulfill you?

Alison's Contribution:

I'm one of those who asks questions all the time so if I had to wait 24 hours for someone else to come back with an answer, it had better be the kind of answer I expected - even if asking only cost $1. 

One of the challenges you face with people like me using your service is that your researches are probably going to have to spend a serious number of hours researching the answer and then cobbling together a terrific answer which is complete and concise.

IF AN EMPLOYEE ABANDONS THEIR JOB WHAT IS THE RECOURSE???

Alison's contribution:

I'd run around to see if they are okay. No information= Information needed not that they have necessarily left you down. Speculation and anger causes ulcers and not everyone can get to a phone.

Dad had to go back to work not once, but twice because the person taking over died. (I'm sure it wasn't the fear of the job that caused the result, just coincidence.)

Personal Power from Tony Robbins -- any word? What about other Personal Development mtls?

Alison's Contribution:

Great question - I'm surprised you haven't already heard about Tony Robbins and others who have created the personal coaching industry. 

Tony's great as are others. On a personal level, I always check on ebay and amazon and other shopping sites to see if I can find one that someone else is passing on or get a reduced rate. That way I can choose whether to expand my selection to include other things or donate the difference to a really worth cause who could do wonders with the cash. 

From my perspective, two driving forces for most people are that they either seek inspiration to help them excel or they are trying to fix something about themselves (ie they aren't "good enough" yet). Can a series of CDs help - yes to an extent and if you believe that it will help. 

Recent Reading: I'm an NLP fan, so my latest is "The NLP Coach" by Ian McDermott and Wendy Jago ISBN 0-7499-2277-X This is self coaching 

I'm also in the middle of "Bad Childhood Good Life" by Dr Laura Schlessinger ISBN 0-00-722529-6 read the blurb on Amazon (I can't find the other dozen books she's written). 

It is mid April and it is snowing !!! How does weather affects your mood and your productivity?

Alison's contribution:

It's been almost summer like weather for use for a few weeks and even longer barring one icy northern blast in March. 

Does it make me more productive when it's gloomy vs sunny - not sure it registers, but the lighting and warmth in the room does. 

I find that burning some lemon oil and putting on major key baroque music are an effective way to get me "o