B. Mann Consulting

So, we now have Google's answer to Facebook's closed development platform: OpenSocial (link goes live Thursday).

Google has a good selection of launch partners for this -- Ning, LinkedIn (an API?! finally!), and Plaxo being the most interesting ones. RockYou and Slide are Facebook development companies that are also signed on, so we'll definitely see some launch apps, not just bare APIs.

This is, of course, very encouraging and similar to the short discussion I lead at the Facebook Developer Garage: integrate with systems other than Facebook, use open standards, and put your stuff out on the open web. Marc Canter has a gleeful post about all of this, including linking back to standards and experiments that have already been underway. Be interesting to see how OpenID Attribute Exchange, which I have long been a fan of, fits into all this.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that there was already a Drupal module ready to go -- here's the project page. Except, it's just a placeholder for now :P But, nonetheless, this is an obvious set of APIs for Drupal to support and participate in this open web.

Will it work? Well, we've got a whole other set of mashups and connections to be making. This code is brand new, and developers, designers, and business owners are going to have to spend time kicking the tires and just trying stuff. Just like Facebook and the Facebook platform has been a new thing which has seen an explosion of creativity and experimentation, I expect we'll see the same thing around these open APIs. It's going to be a fun ride...

As I mentioned in my last post on LinkedIn Answers, I posted a meta-question to give feedback:

Suggestions on how LinkedIn Answers should evolve

I've been poking around LinkedIn Answers and am enjoying it so far. As other posts have said -- the offtopic and/or posts that aren't questions need to have a way that members can flag them.
Here's one suggestion on further additions: give me RSS feeds and/or other notification options to subscribe to Answers -- per category, as well as per post, so I can follow up on later answers.

There has been lots of good activity in there, but of course it is up to me as question poser to "close" the question and award the best answer to someone. In another pseudo-question on the use of open source software, I remarked that making these discussios public are of higher value to the "open Internet", and encouraged people to at the very least cross-post to their blogs when they are adding valuable answers.

Scott Allen saw this and posted to his blog, which is dedicated to looking at LinkedIn: LinkedIntelligence - Top Ten Feature Requests for LinkedIn Answers. I think I'll nominate him as the best question answer-er and add to the "green expert stars" he's collecting.

I also wanted to share a snippet of an answer from Betsy Kimak, indicating that LinkedIn Answers is getting a bit addictive...

I'm sure I had things to do...goals and projects...family? Hmmm. Can't seem to remember what they were. Maybe if I pose a question someone will tell me. I'll just look through the list first… Huh, deal-flow generation, what's that? There's really a tube yogurt market? Am I interested in split placement? How do I know? I had better find out what that is… What is it that I do again? Ok, here's the category…What's that one? Oh, I know the answer! Better respond...Wow, is it dark outside already?

My suggestions:

(1) Support group for LinkedIn Answers addicts. Seriously. Sign me up. There's got to be someone here with the credentials, let me just browse through the profiles…

(2) Mechanical Turk-style payment/barter feature. Lots of talent is being given away for free. Besides, we'll need a way to support ourselves after we all lose our jobs and clients. After all, a penny earned…

Thanks for sharing that, Betsy -- made me grin. 

Final thought: what about making the LinkedIn Answers portion of the site public? And a widget for displaying my "expert stars"? And cross posting questions/answers to my blog? And...and... :P

If you haven't been back to LinkedIn for a while, it's time to check it out again. I've written about it in full or passing before -- my favourite title is probably The first business plan with social networking features: LinkedIn, highlighting the fact that connecting people really is just one aspect of any such service.

So, why should you go back now? LinkedIn Answers. It lets you ask questions, answer them, recommend experts and links. It's definitely going through some growing pains, especially as there are no feedback loops in place to stop people from marketing or pitching rather than really asking questions.

I've been using it for the last 5 days or so....and it's addictive (bagged my first "expert" star in the Blogging category). The quality of the interaction is quite high, and I actually find myself browsing the questions. That has been my single biggest feedback about LinkedIn (not bad or good, just feedback): you go there when you need something, but there isn't anything that inherently draws you back. With Answers, that changes.

One thing I would like to see is increased open-ness from the system. Answers is exactly the sort of thing that should be out in the open, for many of the questions and answers. Any decent answer I post is likely of high enough quality that it should be posted out on my blog, available to the "open Internet". Having an account on LinkedIn is a fine barrier for interacting, but the content itself should be publicly permalinkable. Yes, LinkedIn is an identity system with reputation built in...wonder when they will connect to an open standard.

If you want to give feedback directly, I started a question inside Answers: Suggestions on how LinkedIn Answers should evolve.

I just gave a young woman calling from the UVic Alumni Association a bit of a hard time, as I do anyone calling me unsolicited.

I asked a bit about their online progress. It turns out you can donate online, although predictably the entire site seems to be kept up to date using manual updates and Dreamweaver templates.

What would I like from my Alumni association? Well, a Web 2.0 website with profiles of my former classmates would be nice, as well as the option to subscribe to news via RSS. Perhaps that's asking a bit much. I'm stilling following LinkedIn with interest: they actually manage some group affiliations, like these alumni associations.

But, I guess I only get to complain if I get involved and try and help out. Time to go find out who to contact at UVic.