This is a fun topic. I started to address some comments on Network Shmetwork as another comment but decided to make it a post. I really believe it is worthwhile to pick at this a bit so people understand this is NOT a complaint about LinkedIn as a data source.

Dear Interested Third, Tom and Dennis:
Let me be clear…for myself, and I believe Jeff as well… LinkedIn is an incredibly rich data source. It is all the linking that is a sad waste of time. The same placements are in it regardless of whether one has professed love to a stranger or not. Bragging about numbers of contacts on LinkedIn makes people sound like the pitiful Penelope (Kristen Wiig) on Saturday Night Live who always knows one more person,makes one more dollar and is just slightly better while clearly being clueless. I’ll bet the way Interested Third Party embraces change includes a case of duct tape,a laser disc player, an Electrodex and a digital cassette player in the basement.
     And “You Know Me” I believe I do…Poor Steve Finkel has been ‘off’ on the internet for quite some time. Bless his heart, the theory behind Breakthrough is the best I have ever seen for setting up a ‘desk’ and then to deny it by saying the equivalent of “This must be a LOG cabin and using anything more than a handsaw,axes and chisels will not be tolerated.” is hilarious. As Jeff just said, All these tools need to be looked at and the good in them needs to be found. Some new tools are a complete waste (Spoke,Spock) but the way we get them (Internet) is not.
     The bottom line on LinkedIn, I think I finally have a way to describe it, is that a free dictionary is a great thing to have…a wonderful, valuable resource…but there is limited value in reading all of it,sections of it or anything but the word you need right now. And Steve Finkel saying that 10 seconds to type “Define: Luddite” vs several minutes to look it up in the 8 pound paper book is a bad thing still makes me wonder how he could say that every time I see or hear it. Maybe he’ll send me a telegram saying he’s over that now.  I must stop writing now. I need to go find a list of people who claim they have read all the Wikipedia so I can leverage their incredible knowledge.

I did my good deed and put a very mild-mannered comment on Jeff’s industry vs profession column yesterday. Now I am getting the curmudgeon stick back out on an issue that I think Jeff will probably agree with, though I admit he’d do it in a kinder,gentler way. I just saw a message similar to this one in a forum I belong to…”I am so proud to announce that since the LinkedIn seminar, thanks to The Presenter, I have connections  that link ME to 7,769,300+ professionals! Gonna work that network! ” I was in that seminar where I spent an hour or so learning to connect with certain LinkedIn “libertines” See Thesaurus…adultress, advoutress, courtesan, prostitute, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie; woman, woman of the town; streetwalker, Cyprian, miss, piece; frail sisterhood; demirep, wench, trollop, trull, baggage, hussy, drab, bitch, jade, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, slut, minx, harridan;