The Network Effect

A friend of mine wrote a really good article on The Network Effect.
You can check out the two parts of the article at:

http://michaelbd.blogspot.com/2007/02/network-effect.html
http://michaelbd.blogspot.com/2007/06/network-effect-part-2.html

I highly recommend you check out these articles. They are very interesting.

If you have an interesting article, tips, seminars, you think would help the group
please email them to me at chrisw_88@hotmail.com also if you have any networking
questions feel free to email me and I will try an answer or point you at the resource that
may help.

MySpace and Yahoo

There are a lot of rumors flying around of Yahoo getting MySpace.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article1957867.ece

If this happens this would be huge and would further fuel my prediction that Google will by Facebook. It only makes sense from the perspective of where the industry is going.

Hats off for 5FM for launching its social networking portal

Social Networking gets a new meaning. This social networking site provides a place for people to
raise social issues. Its specifically meant for Africa but I suggest you sign up and support it and
check out what the issues are over there.

http://www.youngblood5.co.za/

Hats off to people that are pushing the boundaries of Social Networking and acting to improve our communication with all parts of the world.

10 Commandments of Driving

I know people during their networking will need to drive. For this reason I thought I these commandments passed on by the Vatican. Maybe they could save your lives or make your journey less stressful for you and others.

The 10 commandments of driving

1. You shall not kill.
2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of
   mortal harm.
3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen
   events.
4. Be charitable and help your neighbour in need, especially victims of
   accidents.
5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are
   not in a fitting condition to do so.
7. Support the families of accident victims.
8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time,
   so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.
9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.
10. Feel responsible toward others.
    
    Source: The Vatican website and
    the Associated Press

Hope these commandments will help you in your day to day travels.

LinkedIn Restrictions

I am sure a lot of you have or will experience this soon. It seems if you use
the Colleage or Classmates feature too often then they restrict you from using it.

If you get this message simply email support and ask them why you are being restricted and when it will be released. If you are not abusing it, then it seems they will release it. They released it for me in 4 days. I think its probably similar to the invitation cap. When you reach it then send them an email and they will review your activity and if you are using it normally then they will increase it.

One of the things I have been suggesting to LinkedIn from the beginning is that they need
to add valuable add-ons so people will want to upgrade.

1) For Groups, if you upgrade them then offer chat, whiteboarding, sharing of files and/or content.
2) As far as content sharing goes, if individuals upgrade then allow them to do moshups.
3) Make a plug-in api. Facebook is doing it, but they made it open to anyone. Being a business network open it up to businesses that want to integrate. YouTube, BlogTV, Flickr, Photobucket integration for profiles.
4) How about ebay.ca integration?
5) How about allowing those who upgrade to store relationship information or tag contacts to make them easier to find. Make them easier to group like you do with offline relationships.

I have been using LinkedIn a lot and pretty early on in the process so I have seen the improvements but this industry moves fast. Let's hope LinkedIn wakes up and smells the coffee and listens to its users. LinkedIn has a large user base and can generate a lot of revenue simply by adding a few more valuable features to the premium edition