I have to agree with people like Bill. This network is used by professionals looking for progessionals. My business is my business and I will choose who I want to see it, and what it is I want them to see. I have made a great number of superb contacts on Linkedin since I joined. If I wanted to "socialize", I would have joined Twitter or Facebook. You won't find me there. My social life is "difinately" not your business.

My purpose on Linkedin is to make contacts in my field of expertise and those who might help me in my field. I am using it to broaden my horizens and improve my skills. If Linkedin decides to open my file and information to those whom I do not choose to give it to, they will lose me also.

This is the one place that I feel comfortable in puting myself out in front of the professional community without the fear of some 3rd party getting my information and trying to contact me about something that I have no desire to purchase or participate in.

Obviously, those of you who are not happy with Linkedin have some use for it, or you wouldn't be here. PLEASE, let's keep one site sacred for those who choose to try to improve their progessional careers and not flaunt their social life. Let's leave that on Twitter, Facebook or some other social networking tool.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day, and remember, you only get one day at a time!!!! Make the most of it!

My data stored on LinkedIn are MINE, for Heaven's sake, not Reid Hoffman's !

The only individual entitled to make a decision as to what to share with whom on my data is ME ! This comment is aimed at LinkedIn's management, but also to all the other carpers who whine because LI won't let them in the party.

Ask me, not LI! Show me you respect my right to privacy by offering me something for my valuable data, and I might consider it, otherwise sod off !

But you are right to identify their "roach motel" attitude to data protability. It's actually worse than you may believe though. We have a tool on our site to enable users to fetch their LinkedIn contacts over to our Social CRM system and we received a cease and desist notice from LinkedIn trying to prohibit us using it. In fact, they use the very same tools to enable their users to fetch their Google, Windows Live and AOL contacts into LinkedIn. When we pointed out their hypocracy they backed down.

So they're happy for you to bring your own data over (and a significant number of those 50M users were invited to join using those tools), but then won't release it back to you through anything other than a primitive CSV export.

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

That's the reason I mentioned OAuth. The idea isn't to open up linkedin. Instead, it's to give users control over their own data. To let them use their linkedin data in various programs, but only their own data, not letting startups copy the entire linkedin graph.

So, you'd authenticate who you are to linkedin and give 3rd-party apps permission to read *and write* to your addressbook. That would make linkedin 10x more useful to me (at least assuming gmail, highrise, etc would sync with it).

It could have been the center of your online contacts if they let programs OAuth and import/export. That's the API that 90% of applications need: OAuth(user); getContacts(userid)->(userid, name, email hash); getInfo(userid)->(name, companyname, city, resume).

But, given their history, I'll believe it when I see it.

Dude - Plaxo *supports* data import/export!

Plaxo is huge, getting bigger everyday ...because they are not a roach motel. I believe you've just supported "my" point.

Someone compared LinkedIn to Friendster. Maybe you should compared LinkedIn to Plaxo. Where is Plaxo now?

I think if LinkedIn shared the special sauce and allowed thrid party to gain information that would be the end of them.

Adam

- Click on 'Accounts and Settings' at the top of the page
- Click on 'Your Private RSS Feeds' on that page
- You'll see a private URL to your feed

We still desperately need an API of course!

My biggest complain is the same as above. They aren't open enough.

I have contacted them about advertising as well as application development / partnering.

Advertising they straight out say you need to spend 25K + month or we don't talk to you.

I asked them about opening up their event system through the API and partnering with them on an application. I handle events for SAP and Google, and they said no...they weren't interested.

They could really take the network to the next level by opening up and creating a business ecosystem.

Mr. Antich that's the same tone Friendster used, almost verbatim, for its self description in 2003.

Friendster was first to market with a social network, used the roach motel business model, then sat in its laurels and failed to innovate arrogantly citing they were "most used", "best".

Worked out really well for them, huh?

...doing so would mean they will have to innovate, be awesome, compete with other services.