The Cam23 blog described LinkedIn as 'another social networking site'. My first impressions weren't that great - to me it's not a social networking site at all as the emphasis seems to be on making work contacts. Basically it's a tool for keeping your networking contacts in order. It's a tool probably more suited to the high flyers of the library world - which I am not.
The biggest issue I have with LinkedIn is privacy. On my Facebook account I am careful to only add people as friends if I know them, my contact details are kept private and I don't display my full date of birth. I also don't display any details about where I work. This isn't just for security reasons but because I value my privacy. LinkedIn seems to encourage people to display their full job title, where they work and their qualifications - and the whole point of it seems to be to add people who you've met at conferences etc - i.e people who you don't really know. What's wrong with giving someone a business card with a name and work email address on it?
So even if I did have a reason for using LinkedIn, I probably wouldn't.
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I think the way Linkedin works is to encourage professional contacts for which the information about job titles and experience is necessary. I don't think that what it asks one to provide is too intrusive, you don't have to reveal your birthday on the site if you don't want to. While you are absolutely right about being guarded about one's privacy I guess one has to weigh the risks involved in creating a profile against the benefits of participating in Linkedin's groups, and in making and maintaining contacts.
ReplyDelete"I guess one has to weigh the risks involved in creating a profile against the benefits of participating in Linkedin's groups, and in making and maintaining contacts."
ReplyDeleteI think this is true for someone who is high up in the Library system and who has everything to gain from putting themselves and their information out there. I have, after all heard of people being headhunted through LinkedIn (although this wasn't a library person). But for someone like me who works to live rather than lives to work I can't see it being of benefit at all. The privacy issue is so important not just because of what's available on this website but also by what you have put on other websites. If anyone can get your full name and date of birth from Facebook, and can then get where you work and your qualifications from LinkedIn, plus a general picture of your daily routine from Twitter, they have a hell of a lot more information about you then anyone who doesn't know you deserves to have. This is a pretty interesting atricle about Foursquare stalking
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jul/23/foursquare