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LinkedIn
The Future of LinkedIn and the Economic Graph ... by Jeff Weiner. LinkdIn CEO
Burgess COMMENTARY
I made the following comment on the LinkledIn vision articulated by Jeff Weiner:
In this post, Jeff Weiner talks about creating an economic graph in that will do various things including '... spotting in real-time the trends pointing to economic opportunities'. This is a great vision ... but the question I want to ask is exactly what is an 'economic opportunity'. If economic opportunity is merely the idea that someone can 'earn money' in a 'money profit environment' then this initiative is just another step to accelerate movement to the ultimate failure of the modern economic system. On the other hand if an 'economic opportunity' is defined to be something where someone can be engaged in an economic activity that produces 'valuadd' for society, then we will be able to start the process of sorting out the modern economy so that investment gets redirected to things that matter rather than merely allocating resources into things that make 'me' money no matter what happens to people, community, environment and ecosystem. Differentiating between good money profit performance and good social valuadd performance is important. Hopefully something can be done so that the value issue is part of LinkedIn's economic opportunity mapping initiative.
Peter Burgess
Peter Burgess The Future of LinkedIn and the Economic Graph Jeff Weiner December 10, 2012
One of the questions I'm most frequently asked these days is what the future holds for LinkedIn. The answer depends greatly on the time horizon.
Over the next few years, you'll continue to see us innovate across our core value propositions for members in the areas of professional identity (e.g. the LinkedIn Profile, Search, and Contacts); professional insights (e.g. the Home Page, Slideshare, LinkedIn Today, Groups and Influencers), and ensuring we work wherever our members work -- everywhere (e.g. mobile and API development).
However, if you start to extend our timetable out to a decade or more, the scope of the answer shifts materially.
Our ultimate dream is to develop the world's first economic graph. In other words, we want to digitally map the global economy, identifying the connections between people, jobs, skills, companies, and professional knowledge -- and spot in real-time the trends pointing to economic opportunities. It's a big vision, but we believe we're in a unique position to make it happen.
Before getting into the specifics, I wanted to first provide a bit of historical context.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg popularized the concept of the social graph to describe his approach to mapping the world's social relationships, in the process unlocking untold value for people by digitizing their social networks.
Reid Hoffman and the other founders of LinkedIn initially created a platform to help people tap the value of their professional networks, and developed an infrastructure that could map those relationships up to three degrees. In doing so, they provided the foundation for what would eventually become the world's largest professional graph.
Our current long-term vision at LinkedIn is to extend this professional graph into an economic graph by digitally manifesting every economic opportunity in the world (full-time and temporary); the skills required to obtain those opportunities; the profiles for every company in the world offering those opportunities; the professional profiles for every one of the roughly 3.3 billion people in the global workforce; and subsequently overlay the professional knowledge of those individuals and companies onto the graph.
Once realized, we then want to get out of the way and allow all of the nodes on this network to connect seamlessly by removing as much friction as possible and allowing all forms of capital, e.g. working capital, intellectual capital, and human capital, to flow to where it can best be leveraged. In doing so, we believe we'll be able to help lift the global economy.
Imagine the possibilities.
Recently, the Wall Street Journal wrote about the fact that the city of Fort Wayne, Ind. has many jobs available, but over 14,000 people are still looking for work. The problem is one faced by a growing number of cities in the U.S. and around the world: There is a widening skills gap where the existing workforce has been educated and trained to obtain the jobs of yesterday and not the jobs of today and tomorrow.
With the existence of an economic graph, we could look at where the jobs are in any given locality, identify the fastest growing jobs in that area, the skills required to obtain those jobs, the skills of the existing aggregate workforce there, and then quantify the size of the gap. Even more importantly, we could then provide a feed of that data to local vocational training facilities, junior colleges, etc. so they could develop a just-in-time curriculum that provides local job seekers the skills they need to obtain the jobs that are and will be, and not just the jobs that once were.
Separately, we could provide current college students the ability to see the career paths of all of their school's alumni by company, geography, and functional role. These students, among the hardest hit by current macro-economic conditions, would then be in a position to reach out to former graduates to learn more about how they developed their careers, identify mentors, and help get their foot in the door of companies providing future opportunities. Realize, this isn't science fiction, it already exists. Perhaps even more exciting, since this functionality is being developed as an extensible platform, the same approach could be applied beyond universities to all vocational segments and industries, e.g. returning veterans, welders in Detroit, and the existing and former employees of every company in the world.
Despite the truly world class talent we've assembled at LinkedIn, no one company could ever realize every conceivable application that an economic graph of this scope would generate. In success, we would look forward to the day when developers, data scientists, and forward thinking economists could conduct research that was previously implausible at this scale. Combined with our own internal efforts, together we could subsequently unlock unprecedented insight into the world's collective understanding on how to move the needle of the global economy.
At LinkedIn, we draw a clear distinction between vision and mission, where the former represents our collective dream and inspiration while the latter is a measurable, realizable overarching objective. Developing the economic graph is a vision. That said, with over 187 million members (growing at roughly two per second), 2.8 million active company profiles, 1 million professionally oriented groups, and a wide array of other valuable assets in place and still to come, this is one dream we're working hard towards making a reality.
Following Jeff Weiner
Peter Burgess In this post, Jeff Weiner talks about creating an economic graph in that will do various things including '... spotting in real-time the trends pointing to economic opportunities'. This is a great vision ... but the question I want to ask is exactly what is an 'economic opportunity'. If economic opportunity is merely the idea that someone can 'earn money' in a 'money profit environment' then this initiative is just another step to accelerate movement to the ultimate failure of the modern economic system. On the other hand if an 'economic opportunity' is defined to be something where someone can be engaged in an economic activity that produces 'valuadd' for society, then we will be able to start the process of sorting out the modern economy so that investment gets redirected to things that matter rather than merely allocating resources into things that make 'me' money no matter what happens to people, community, environment and ecosystem. Differentiating between good money profit performance and good social valuadd performance is important. Hopefully something can be done so that the value issue is part of LinkedIn's economic opportunity mapping initiative. 2m
Yan L. The greatest advantage of Linkedin compared with other career sites as Monster, CareerBuild, etc. is that Linedin provides people with the opportunities to build own network. This means that potential job seekers can not only connect with potential employers, but also connect with any others including old classmates, professors, colleagues, friends, relatives, etc. Based on my experience more information can come from those connections other than employers. 17h
J Weis This particular string of words caught my attention. 'Our current long-term vision at LinkedIn is to ... help 3.3 billion people [find work].' This might possibly SHATTER everything we convince ourselves to be true. This seems like a cuase. If it weren't, I'd be disappointed. 1d
Beth L. The explosion of LinkedIn and your vision is truly amazing. Working with professionals in BioTech who are in transition, this tool is critical to success. Abundant success in 2013! 1d
Charles Lewis Dear Jeff, What is lacking is Creadability with a large group of Pennyless individuals seeking money and they do not have a penny, THAT IS NEVER GOING TO MAKE LINKEDIN LOOK GOOD, NEVER. Many of the Groups in just the last few months are NOTHING BUT A REALESTATE LISTING OF FOR SALE PROPERTIES ALL OVER INDIA. Yet they are supposed to be a place for finding Lenders, Investors. Jerks who state that anyone who charges professional services is a Scammer. I have offered Heads of Groups if I provide them with Proof of our Ability to Fund good Projects will the Verify them and post it on the Linkedin Area, NEVER HEAR BACK FROM THEM, DEAD SILENCE, IF ANYONE CAN STAND THE TEST WE CAN, BUT I DO NOT WORK FOR FREE AND PREPAY SOME CLIENTS STARTUP BASIC BUSINESS EXPENSES TO GET A LOAN OR INVESTMENT. AND I CAN APPROVE A INVESTMENT OF 100% BUT I WILL NOT PAY THE EXPENSES TO SET UP THE TRANSACTION. MOST OF THE TOP PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN HERE FOR YEARS AS I HAVE I CONTINUE TO SEE SOMEONE STATES THAT THEY ARE SCAMMERS, AT LEAST 90%, SO NO ONE BELEIVES IN ANYONE, NO CREADABILITY, NO TRANSACTIONS CLOSE OR VERY VERY FEW. I WOULD BE HAPPY TO SUPPLY YOU PROOF, WILL OTHERS DO THE SAME SO THAT WE KNOW THOSE WHO ARE OFFERING MONEY HAVE SOME, I CAN STAND THE TEST, CAN THE OTHERS, I DO NOT KNOW. THEN A MONTH LATER I SEE THERE NAME LISTED AS A SCAMMER (THEY HAVE BEEN HERE FOR YEARS) AS MINE IS BY A TOTAL JERK. THERE IS POTENTIAL HERE, BUT ONLY IF THERE IS CREADABILITY AND RIGHT NOW I HAVE SEEN THE CREADABILITY GO STRAIGHT OFF THE CLIFF, WITH LITTLE MAFIAS EVEN CONTROLLING WHAT IS SAID IN EACH GROUP, THIS ELIMINATES FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION AND WHAT OTHERS ARE REALLY THINKING AND MAKES A JOKE OUT OF LINKEDIN. 2d
Shoney Y. Thank you for sharing your vision and mission. This is why we came here everyday to seek insights and inspiration. With 187 million members - some of them best minds in the industry, you surely are in the sweet spot of tapping into this enormous talent pool to develop the economic graph. 2d
Cristian V. The vision is not so hard-to-reach after all, while the mission, I believe, is in our hands every day. Keep on striving for the vision! 2d
Deborah J. Boyd One of the things I like best about Google is their ability to ditch things that don't appear to be going anywhere. Since they bought Wildfire I look forward to many exciting marketing campaigns that blast the major players all at once. peaceby2027.com 2d
Chris C. The visualization of this interconnected economic graph intellectually fascinates me, but its enabling 'just in time' services methodology is really intriguing! As someone who has tried to use the JIT mindset outside of the typical logistics arena, now I've got another place to play with it. Thanks Jeff! 3d
Simon K. This is a great write on vision and corresponding business development. And it provides a credible vision for the most value-adding network today. 3d
Ziad E. Hi Jeff, its great idea to have our ultimate dream is develop the world’s first economic graph . Its global map is directed by global wealth poles system. System has to be corrected by wealth distribution center indicator by individual or percentages in every country is the global key market indicator. Net working to balance the wealth in every country to grew the middle class in every country. Human being need for real justice employment and decrease slavery employment rate. Indicator to stop wars for the desires of global wealth poles and to drive the world to real honest competition. 4d
Lisa C. The concept of such a massive scale graph is impressive, and I love the idealism! It did get me thinking about the logistics of a digital economic graph. I think it is a great idea, but I have never heard of structured or functional foundations being laid in sets of three before. Was that intentional or something that you would have to work around? I know my math and I get economics, but I am missing more than a few tiles in the digital mosaic. Would you mind explaining the theory more tangibly if you find the time? It's not a big deal, I just dislike that half-way to comprehension feeling. Thanks! 4d
Susan J. Stein Fabulous vision, keep on rock in', Wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year to you Jeff and your very supportive staff! 4d
Saami Haamid Ikram O'dear Jeff! Yesterday I was thinking that for which purpose(s) my countrys' (Pakistan) professionals are using this network (in general). I was about to start a discussion to understand the nature of advantages they are gaining from this wonderful treasure! I think LinkedIn must take the initiative of offering awareness sessions / animated videos on Youtube / circulate on networks which will educate people for different advantages. You see most of the people in my country, they dont go to check out things until they reach infront of them. So, I would request your organization to take advantage of people like me or your own team and get us educate for the real benefits of this professional network LinkedIn (Lost/Love in/of Knowledge and educational Investment) Best wishes for your dream of developing the World's first economic graph! I loved the idea and before reading this article I have understood the 40% of your dream. 4d
andre szykier While I like how LI has supported the formation of interest based groups, I feel that most of the contributors use it as a way to promote their services - a form of intrusive advertising. As for the economic future of LI, my guess it is just a data resource for companies in the job recruitment business. Finally, content aggregation, curation and posting from third party sources by members is useful, it needs tools for categorization so that users can create a resource area with a bit of Pinterest and DropBox design features. Reddit, StumbleUpon and Diggs have a good model to adopt by LI. Wish them a successful 2013. 5d VARUN K. Hi, This idea itself is very impressive and powerful. will definitely bring world skills together and easily approachable. great job by linkedin team. All the best Keep on Rocking Man!! 5d Kim B. Great objectives. LinkedIn needs some serious work however on its security. You've got way to many posers, and hackers, and people who rewrite history. 5d ANIL V. Great Jeff, I hope LinkedIn smashed unemployment on entire world,Great Network....Wish you a very Happy New Year 2013 5d JATIN V. Wish you Joy & Peace always Jeff Weiner at Linkedin , Great Network ** 6d Raman K. Hi Jeff its a great dream of your Team.It will really help the future generations across the Globe. 6d Josia Nakash Hi from Israel! And thanks for sharing with us Jeff! Linkedin is in a great position because the next stage is all about discovering how connected we are -- but work will no longer be the center of our lives like it is now. 7d Søren W. Great vision! But in ONE WORLD heading for 9 billion citizens in 2050 the vision will only make sense in a sustainability perspective, i.e. 'sustainable economic growth'. We are talking about economic AND social AND environmental AND demographic sustainability. This is where LinkedIn can make a difference in linking those resources together that can solve the problems we face – and do so in a profit, people, planet perspective. (This is where you will need a 'taxonomy on sustainability' – but that is another story). 8d Frédéric H. Great tool, it can be used as any tool for the good and the bad... 9d KC K. Unfortunately, Linkedin admin is faulty imposing discouraging rules and settings. Visit Li Groups and Q&A, see for yourself, @Jeff Weiner 9d Bhaskara Reddy S. This is Great Site and I have connected to ~3000 professionals across globe 9d Zeljka P. Amazing vision. We are designed to connect with others and form a collective intelligence. Perhaps LinkedIn can help with that vision! 9d Aleta T. Jeff, I agree with your perspective, and see clearly how this thinking is working in my state (Utah) to bring real and pertinent data that can direct the best use of scarce resources in education and business. LinkedIn is a great source of economic graphing information that will eventually change the way we see our world. 9d Carine KNAPEN Hi Jeff, great vision which I share entirely. World economy is going down the drain because too many of us continue to sweep in front of our own door. Rather than proclaim ' let's connect ! ' we should exclaim ' let's unite! ' Unite our forces, share our human, intellectual and social capital and we'll all be better of ( cf Keynes ). Linkedin has taken the step in the right direction. Thank you for existing and thank you for taking this unique tool to the next level. 10d Chakib A. Thanks to Linkedin; it do not need to introduce my self; when talking to a Head Hunter over the phone, he/ she knows already everything about me. This is a wonderful tool; however, some connections are misusing it. Many people trying to connect just to seek job o recomendatios without even knowing you 10d Manfred F. LinkedIn amazed me from the beginning, it represents the vision of a future aggregated and optimized on level of contacts, opportunities, worldwide business and projects. For that, thank you LinkedIn and happy New Year. That 2013 be another milestone, capable of astonish everybody. 10d Ljiljana A. Be careful with your dream,you could make it happen! All the best in New Year! 10d Raj D. Hi Jeff, Ideally all the great platforms starts with a clear motive of helping the universe to become a better connected world liked Facebook, Linkedin etc. Over a period of time they start becoming business generating engines. 1. Penetration - How many people dont feel threatened to tell their names and how do you evaluate the real who with the virtual who. Ideally with the kind of database and the people in this forum. I would rather want linkedin to build local communities to push for innovation, help enterpreneurs with local charters, create a vehicle for innovation and sharing and come up with the top 42 know how for promotion to next level to stay connected. Free lectures which is available for people with the right likes to access it. 11d Cenk K. Why just count of likes and comments shown here. May be someone dislike the article. I am really afraid that kinds of words that starting with 'Globally....' That means or behind the idea big company will make money globally, It is not a invention, it is not a innovation, it is not a fantastic it is a new facility at most. İt wouldn't surcharged than as it is. Who will evaluate those things, are the companies ready to evaluate this or do they need this? No any new graduated young people will be talented or more professional before they have started the work on real jobs. Sharing the profiles or CV is not a big deal. This may be eliminate many internet headhunting company but I think the companies HR department' point of view there will be nothing to change. 11d pushpanjali behera Including colleges and schools to this forum indeed a good task.Students will be much more competent as a professional once they stepped out of school/University!!! 3 Cheers to Jefff!!!! ALL The very BEST :) 11d Angelo S. The idea of social networks may no longer be new, but the idea of harnessing the intrinsic power of networks to address specific issues of society is, to my mind, the innovation sparked by LinkedIn. Now that Jeff Weiner has shared this vision, I can imagine thousands of light bulbs going off in people's heads all over the world, and I expect the social landscape will transform yet again. These are exciting times, indeed! 11d Mark Goulston The secret to growing any business is to listen deeply into your market and find out the least you can say that causes them to spontaneously want more of you sooner vs. less of you later vs. none of you ever again. What's the first impression you make with your market? 11d Gloria S. Fantástico visión me gustaría que para Estaos Unidos y me gustaria saber que adelantos hay para Latino América ¿algunas nuevas aplicaciones ? ya que se de muchas aplicaciones que hoy estan disponibles pero solo en ingles y para los Estados Unidos y los Latinos podemos contar con estas plataformas en mas idiomas. ya que considero que con un mundo globalizado necesitamos cada día estar mas conectados y manejar mayor información. Antes Linkedin tenia unos gráficos que hoy no puedo ver sacaron este aplicacion que era muy útil, era genial para poder evaluar varios temas relacionados a tus contactos es una gran lastima que ya esta aplicación no este en linkedin, espero que para el 2013 tengan novedades para Latino América por que somos muchos los Latinos que hoy usan Linkedin y quieren aprender y compartir difundir información y saber mas novedades. Muchas felicidades Jeff Weiner por la visión en el mercado de los Estados Unidos felicidades por todos los logros de Linkedin por su gran equipo humano esto es vital el contar con buenos lideres, y espero saber de todas las novedades para Latino América ya que es un mercado que esta creciendo enormemente. 12d Shivshant B. This idea itself is very impressive and powerful. will definitely bring world skills together and easily approachable. great job by linkedin team. All the best! 12d Sheryl H. Just 'liking' this article seemed too simple of an act for such a big data solution. Hats off to Jeff for the articulation of the vision and sharing it here. Already seeing snippets of this at this year's HR Tech show...a decade is certainly not unrealistic. 12d Murali K. Great Jeff, I hope linkedin smashed unemployment on entire world 12d Jagan Nathan Vaman P. Brilliant. LinkedIn as a professional network has the potential to change the world. The sense of purpose ( in creating relationships that matter) and the sense of sharing information, knowledge, opportunities makes it a unique platform for social computing. The idea of an Economic Graph is indeed a big vision All the best Jeff! to make it happen. 12d Anirban M. Really fantastic idea. Can do wonders in terms of identifying and filling resource as well as skills gaps. Accurate mapping and visibility will open many new doors, best part being that the right people are placed in the right job. 12d Hilmi Ç. I am very impressed with Mr. Jeff Weiner's article. Very visionary indeed. Some of the ideas put forward; specificially about the young generation and their adaptabality to new job formats is true, not only for the USA but for many nations I believe. The project that is envisaged is revolutionary; but everything starts with believing. I am sure that LinkedIn will go a long way in this respect. 13d Jeffrey W. I can demonstrate several areas that Linked in lacks anticipating a client's basic need and your programmers have no custom service follow up. To be simple, I never requested Improve Profile written over my profile. I have no choice and your programmers can't remove it. Basic respect for my choice and simple programming. In that sense you imitate Facebook putting in Time Line without anyone's choice or ability to remove it. I can give you other examples where editing is not clear or simple. So I admire your brilliance, but want to remind you basic customer service really matters. 14d Bill B. An excellent vision, which could provide a huge return to the working and want-to-be-working population! Aside from the educational perspective, I think we will find when this comes to fruition, that the tables will actually turn in some instances. I see more and more organizations opening offices in what seem to be unrelated locations, that appear to be a method for landing the right skills they require, by focusing on the locations to find them. It would appear that this 'graph' would allow organizations the perfect insight into where the skills they require have the greatest density of folks located. I'm sure many folks will find many use cases to utilize this type of very valuable information, regardless as to how it's used, its nice to see the information being made available to the masses, especially those in need...great job LinkedIn! 14d Khalil S. Very interesting.......but I do believe that Linkedin has to deal m ore with flexibility. 14d Ron Feldman ...The irony here is that the commendable vision presented by Jeff can be accelerated by Entrepreneurial gnats like myself, who comprise the vast expanse of 'The Who's In Who-Ville'; yet, have to win the 'Horton Hears A Who' Lottery to have our favorite business Elephant such as Linked In gently pick us up in their trunk...peer at us quizzically, and communicate proactively with us gnats. A novel concept: An Elephant communicates with a gnat (Entrepeneur). Some of us specks on the radar (your humble gnat) actually know that they hold pieces of the puzzle to the future of the Internet. Case in point, before I go back to playing handball with the ants this afternoon... Back in 1984, I was V.P. Marketing of the first company Pac-Bell did business with after deregulation of the phone companies as the model company to develop our technological device over their packet-switching network that was part of the Internet backbone. Our little group had conceptualized a tele-portal device that could go into an RJ-11 Jack; and, had a strobe light on-board, as we were kids of the 60's, and used to dance to strobe lights. Yet; the 'aha' moment was that the strobe light would go off when the phone rang, allowing deaf people to communicate with non-deaf, and/or other deaf people, and get them off teletype machines. Alas, our venture got blocked because Bell-South, six month's later, raised an objection to Judge Harold Greene. (No, this isn't going to be grousing...I am not a whining gnat...). They said, 'Hey, these folks can trade stocks over the phone lines with this device.' So, we were history... Yet; that venture was fantastic. The unlucky learn from experience; and, the lucky learn from the experience of others. So, now, getting back to Jeff's posting. He and I share the vision of creating American jobs using our resources. People use the word technology all the time. Yet; technology is the practical application of Science to Industry. The challenge here is personal time bandwidth that bridges personal and business daily routines. I have a wonderful life. Wonderful family. Enjoy the vocational hats that I wear...that comprise the joyful 11 hour work-days. Yet, the daily entrepreneurial seizures still fuel my enthusiasm at 62 years young from the time I get to the gym at 4:30 a.m. daily, until the time that I go to sleep at 7:00 p.m. (except tonight when I will be watching the San Francisco 49'er Football game with my wife.). So, the dream that I have is similar to Jeff's dream. In my dream, a curious ethical Elephant and/or retired-for-the-moment Elephant leader, stumbles upon my Linked In Profile, and decides to sniff out the future of the Internet. Because, I may be a gnat. Yet; I am a gnat that owns a barrier market to the future. And, one day, probably sooner rather than later, I am going to be stampeded by a herd of Elephants....or, better yet; aligned myself with other dangerous gnats. Thanks to Linked In, all of us gnats are hiding in plain site, with our Linked In Profiles. ...During this Holiday Season, us gnats and Elephants can learn to talk to each other in a positive, trustworthy manner. We are all so lucky to be living in this lifetime. We can help our Country use the technology of the Internet to create and educate and solve problems for the greater good of ourselves and the World. Jeff...KEEP GOING! 14d Hassan A. one of the most interesting visions I've ever read.......what is the time span expected or targeted to reach such point? 15d Jessica H. Very interesting. Another way of looking at economic optimization is that every human being not fulfilling their potential is a node of unused capacity. So, how do you refine your system to optimize the best of everyone, all the time and in every place. I am sure that economists have explored this idea for people as well as manufacturing capacity. If we are to maximize world wealth (or productivity or total human satisfaction or whatever), we need to have a defined criteria and a way of quickly equilibrating any imbalances. Can LinkedIn do that? (remember that you cannot presuppose the criteria that will need to be optimized; even if you do, once we have optimized it, we collectively may decide that there is really a more important criteria; and even if we are correct at a moment in time, the criteria target may change over time...so you need to stay flexible). Good luck with your effort! 15d Bhola P. Jeff's vision is excellent. But the question is how this professional connection is benefiting the users. In deed it is a digital market place and everyone is putting his/ her profiles in linkedlN. There should be a research on whether its intent is fulfilled. In my experience, I have been using it to read articles and insights on industry, business growth, management and leaderships. I like news in LinkedlN. I have not been able to find mentor or someone who is so much passionately helpful to give practical suggestion through this link. However, it is an amazing market I hope many professional would reap advantages. I believe the vision of this organization, though ambitious, is not impossible. My best wishes! 15d Keith Winfree I want to see the graph and see the std dev. :) 15d Willie LU I suggest LinkedIN consider three key issues to the future: Mobile Cloud for Enterprise markets. This is going to be over trillion dollar's business ahead. 15d Paul P. I'm impressed! This is a very big vision indeed. 15d Mohammed A. Dear Jeff, Interesting approach and excellent vision, it's important to have a big vision for LinkedIn which have shorten the distances between people, and improved the connections between people, jobs, skills, companies, and professional knowledge, and as said by others that the important part is how to communicate this and how it will impact the customers from one side, and on the other side, we have noticed that there was a major changes that is recently made i.e. the icons of summery, experience etc.. Which in my opinion, it was better earlier. but I must say that it is great innovation for the globe. 16d Alex V. This strategy focuses too much on results and not enough on (future) issues: a matter of perspective in my opinion. I see a much more profound and structural approach as the key to continued growth & success for LinkedIn. 16d Ravshan K. I wish LinkedIn focused on doing its job right rather than embarking on projects of planetary scale. It is turning into a job board which pretends to be a professional social network. The focus on getting your network bigger and bigger is totally wrong because the bigger your network the less meaningful it is, unless you are a recruiter. Honesty....I am tired of all these useless 'network updates' cause I do not care if someone on my network is following someone or that he changed his profile photo. You guys just built it all the wrong way. I think LinkedIn can potentially become what Yahoo is for Google or MySpace is for Facebook. Just wait for that new professional social network to come and do their job right..... 16d John H. Linkedin CEO cool vision to reduce structural unemployment, boost skills and economic leveraging the #socialgraph. 16d Christy H. You're aspiring to all these technical acheivements, yet I'm still receiving graphic and disturbing messages or link requests from people whose profile names and pictures are what sexual positions they prefer. WHY haven't/ can't you integrate a better filtering system for these people and why are they allowed to create profiles that are blatant prostitution pages? Is this not a professional website?Sorry for the vent, but I'm sure I'm not the only female on here that's fed up with this. I feel that it's compromising your company image, not to mention integrity. 17d Michael P. A simple vision yet deeply inspiring and technically achievable...with the right strategies and tactical pursuit, it should just be a matter of time before this vision comes to life and contributes the kind of societal value noted above. Well done - I'm energized! 17d Amit M. I still believe getting connected with right people is little tedious. e.g. say if someone has something valuable, he really needs to be an active member, speak loud on posts, even then little chance to get noticed. Its not lack of knowledge, its time constraint that some really knowledgeable guys at bottom are not able to come to top layer due to Execution work load, but if somehow MIXED WITH TOP LAYER AND DUG DEEP IN THEIR MIND, that would be right blend of RESOURCE STRATEGY. There has to be a 'psychometric test' type of weekly questionnaire series where people can trend. 17d Beck D. Very educational article on leadership. Thank you for sharing your vision and plan. 17d Hummel L. I believe linkedin would definitely be the future market place for working capital, intellectual capital, and human capital, at least for most majority middle level professionals, if it can tap on few more elements, few more things people don't see on a resume 17d Paul P. I like the vision Jeff! ... Has LinkedIn considered ways how to facilitate (and capture) business transactions between people - like working with Elance, Etsy, Kickstarter, PayPal, etc - to develop a standard interface where people could buy and sell goods (tangilbe or digital) or services through LinkedIn? Or collaborate on projects through LinkedIn (integration with Google Docs, possibly)? ... I think if LinkedIn had a way to facilitate business interactions (more than just contact info), rather than just broadcasting information, there could be room for growth. I think you've got a great foundation to work from - a NETWORK of people and relationships built, plus a great BRAND where people think of business, CVs, entrepreneurship, ideas and finding jobs (rather than just a social network/talking about anything. There is a focus here, it seems.) It's actually more built for people who want to make things happen, and I think there is a lot of opportunity there. The LinkedIn News and updated profile are making it more interesting to visit LinkedIn more often too. Thanks for all your hard work and sharing your vision for LinkedIn! 17d Rachel T. I like Dominik's comment. I can see LinkedIn replacing business cards. Especially since so much business is done over the phone or internet these days. I know personally, I regularly (about every two days or so) look up new people I have done business with over the past few days. I also like the goal of economic graphing. As many of the Influencer posts point out, big data is BIG! LinkedIn will be a great source of professional data now and into the future. 18d Dominik S. Linked in will replace in the future traditional business cards 18d chandan S. Dear Sir,I feel LinkedIn should be made more interactive by adding online chat option..... 18d Tanisha M. I can definitely see the value proposition for economic graph. I am imagining endless possibilities for the future of LinkedIn 18d Sakthivel R. It's an excellent attempt what you have done Jeff... 18d Blaise-Gilbert N. YES. But economically and financially, no platform, team, human system, can, for itself cover all the needs and respond to all questions in the whole world . It(the world)'s as diversified as necessary in other to insure the coexistence of more complex systems. Google tried it, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg tried it, ... tried it. Finally, we will say, as LinkedIn CEO, you are right in your way to give the vision of your business. But it is only for your business and your small sector. More and more people still using the old newspapers to find jobs, to posts positions, to ..., to do many things you (and me) would like to organize. But they don't care. They don't know that you (and me) exist, what we do, what we think. THEREFORE, if you want to do something you call 'world economic grah', it shall, in all cases, be false ! SO let's work, make researches, have visions and incept them, ... But let's be humble and determine the frontiers of what we are doing and recognize that there are other worlds, perhaps and surely bigger than our. 18d Rory C. The future looks very bright for all of us . 18d M.Thulani Mbatha The future looks bright for LinkedIN! 18d Ashwani G. I found here, everone is posting there own requirement meanwhile no one is reading other's posts so in this regard there should be a feature that before posting any thing in groups and its discussion people should like other's discussions or should comment, then only they can post there requirement and all. This will enhance the social views and better opportunity to help others. what you say Mr. Jeff Weiner ? 18d Amaresh Pandey I could see linkedin is becoming more and more JAJS (Just Another Job Site) with rich feature. I am expecting you should do something to prevent this, other i feel very sorry if LinkedIn will collapse some day. 19d Benjamin G. Keep up the good work yall 19d Grant P. Great Vision, but linkedin needs to focus more on network flexibility. 19d Yaseen K. Phenomenal vision, a vision that I would love to be a part of! 19d Ahmed A. Great vision with real value !! 19d Suresh T. It is an awesome experience to be part of linked in. I am sure your initiatives are transforming in to reality with in exciting social media. Please let me know how we can help you further. Happy Holidays 19d Enrique A. I am truly excited about being an active participant in The Future of LinkedIn and the Economic Graph. I believe myself to be very much a forward thinker. LinkedIn has been a wonderful venue for me and my professional (to borrow from this article) 'vision and mission”; both present and future. Being a big advocate for the power of self-marketing by means of networking, I need to mention that just today I was conversing with someone during a Chamber of Commerce employment event for Veterans and like the vast majority of the times I brought up LinkedIn as a professional insights resource. It has come to my attention that approximately 70% of the people that I've talked to about it for the first time have heard or even signed up with LinkedIn but nothing else. However those who have put forth the interest and effort reported it beneficial. Needless to say, I have often had the fortune to perform as a LinkedIn beginner’s coach (humm!! That’s an idea) to colleagues who have wisely decided to give it a try. To conclude this comment; the three paragraphs following the subtitle Imagine the Possibilities in this article, where particularly keenly to me today. I will be following the future of LinkedIn and Jeff Weiner. 20d Jan V. LinkedIn is already an invaluable asset for many around the globe. Its diversifying further to become a source of global socio-economic information is exciting. At the same time, I believe there's an opportunity for it to offer users an opt-in to a collaborative platform where real-time communication (chat, VoIP, video-chat,...). This would activate each one's network and allow even greater leverage. 20d Annam Thyagaraja K. LinkeIn is already inspiration of collaborative social networking for many a new startups and with multimedia networking and wireless technologies converge to AllIP real soon, and Tablets are prolifierating into colleges, we can see linkedin becoming even more popular at what it is doing already especially to connect with younger minds going forward as a more productive engagement strategy than other Social media 20d Ronald C. The future of LI will be most guaranteed when the user will be enabled to change the interface (looks, filters, communication) while the 3D data base remains universal and 100% interchangable with any (future) other one in the Universe. In other words, make Linked In so intelligent that it can almost automatically make connections in any direction and let the user control the dash board. For example if the Economic Graph, the Social graph and the Ecologic Graph connect, you have a Sustainability Graph, etc etc. 20d Marie Odile P. 100% agree with Garrett's comment : Let's reduce your vision to my needs as a user. Recently, you removed my ability to link my Wordpress blog (www.leblogducoaching.com) to my profile, thus eliminating the primary way people can read at length my views. Before that you removed the flexibility for me to Tweet a message to more than one Twitter account, thus limiting my own social network brand building. WHY ????? This is NOT customer focused at all and VERY disappointing from a platform such as Linkedin. 20d R. Steve Morris Once you are in the workforce B2B information trumps B2C, as i found moving through both. B2B networks support career paths, educational opportunities, client understanding and are translate through multiple communication channels with the highest loyalty factor-. survival! your mapping will need to be 3D to support vocation, avocation and location (life stage). We can help! 21d Dorina Grossu Why I always thought that LinkedIn is a supportive IT platform that enables those significant changes that need to be made in the world; have I missed something? 21d Garrett Cobarr Let's reduce your vision to my needs as a user. Recently, you removed my ability to link my Wordpress blog to my profile, thus eliminating the primary way people can read at length my views. Before that you removed the flexibility for me to Tweet a message to more than one Twitter account, thus limiting my own social network brand building. It also seems that you have stopped my ability to send a personal message during an invitation for suggested connections. I say this as a paid user, I will not renew as your emphasis is more on the silo than the user's needs to network. 21d Michelle H. As a stock holder I'm in your corner, LOVE the Vision.... 21d Sanjay S. Jeff..Thanks for sharing your vision through Linkedin. Appreciate you coz having a vision is important but projecting it rightly to the audience is much more important. There will be lot of suggestions and counter activities back and forth but I believe you will definitely sail thru. Would like to see your thoughts on some of the comments given below..Thank You! 21d Manoj C. Excellent vision and i wish you ALL THE BEST. also, MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR. 21d Anilkumar Nair May your lofty inspirations come to fruition soon enough. Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year 21d John H. Great. I just hope that LinkedIn will not be merged with Facebook. If that happens, many, including myself, will terminate their account. 21d Kamran ul H. Truly Admirable Vision!!! 21d Mohammad J. 'LinkedIn vision is to extend this professional graph into an economic graph by digitally manifesting every economic opportunity in the world' LinkedIn will do it! 21d Rohit R. Jeff, I always believed and continue believing that Linkedin is a great asset to the current and future Digital age. The Vision and Mission of Linkedin is awe-inspiring and certainly it has and would change the way Corporates communicate in future. I can certainly call you a Change Agent because of what you have achieved so far and for what you have envisioned. 21d Panagiotis A. Can really transform career planning! 21d Chandra M. What a fantastic vision. Certainly there is no better place than Linkedin.to kick start this idea. As the digital age progresses much more deeply and the information is commoditized thru the social networks the opportunities need to be increasingly personalized and meet professional interests of the community - whether it is fund raising, jobs or any other professional interests of the like minded community members. I am sure Linkedin can lead the way with such a great vision in the days ahead. 21d Hans Lak Wouldn't it be awesome if the Linkedin community would be able to start CF Campaigns within their favorite social network? Crowdfunding is HOT! Linkedin is HOT! Crowdfunding is about finding matches, matching a GAP.... if you would be able to match your project with Linkedin technology.... think about people with the same interests...same skills same contacts? Finding the perfect matches for your project. People who care about the things that also matter to your project...Linkedin has that information..and it would be perfect if we would be able to match2social. Crowdfunding is too much about high tech and not enough about high touch right now but people who feel the way that you do about the environment or art or music will increase the results of your CF Campaign! Crowdfunding is all about reaching the right people. 22d Celso M. T. Total development of humankind originates from great ideas! Kudos and more power, Jeff. 22d Mohsin Termezy Great insights into whats coming. Clearly articulated thoughts. Best of Luck Jeff! 22d Jessica S. That is brilliant and best wishes for it!! 22d Kashif A. Respect for Weiner. 23d Michele C. exciting 23d Rajendra S. Great vision. Is there a possibilty to have linkedin Ethiopia> Some thing like that? having linkedin branched like that/ 23d Rachel C. Breaking down barriers to make the most of global talent, inspiration and energy! So much of our collective resources is misunderstood, mis-managed and under-utilised. Let connectivity, efficiency and commonsense reign! 23d Udi M. I'm humbled and ever-inspired to take part in fulfilling such a grand vision. 24d Siamak M. Awesome Vision, Loved the whole article... but there is a gap in between vision and mission which is not visible yet. Linkedin is way too professional for college students and tomorrow's work force are not in the middle schools and they have started thinking (and dreaming) of their future. A sister-website can translate the predictions of tomorrow in a very basic language to them: it can give them the right direction and save (time & energy) in the future. 24d Ankur J. Brilliant! I love the grand vision, Jeff! 24d Eugenijus A. Fantastic vision and I wish you all best success in achieving it!!!! 24d James C. Working on todays candidates in tomorrows world. Sounds good to me! 24d Theo V. I'm not so sure about the emphasis on 'economic' in this article. Where elaborating, other values are stated. That I think is where dreams should be housed. It being a far too simplistic mapping of the value of things, never house a dream on money. 24d Winson C. That is brilliant and I hope Linkedin can make it happen 24d Jukka P. Great Challenge. Happy to work with you guys! 24d Tobias B. What a fascinating & worthy goal! 24d Joseph R. We often throw ideas like this 'out the window' as merely a dream, an abstraction that can never be systematically put together and quantified. I'm truly glad that LinkedIn has taken up this seemingly impossible challenge and is able to see the potential value of it. This could just be the beginning of many more solutions to larger societal problems. We need it! God speed! 24d Ebrahim K. It's so great for any company and for its leadership to have such an audacious vision that steers the efforts and insights of all its members towards a grand goal - that motivates people concerned with the brand and makes them proud of their association with such magnificent dream. 24d Sunistha S. Brilliant !!!! 24d sabitha M. Brillant !!!! and Best Wishes for it........... 24d John L. Most of your vision and mission at LinkedIn serves a generally worthwhile purpose but I feel you are missing a primary business opportunity with Inventions/New ideas. You could act as a confidential flux between these Inventors and your business members, who need to keep producing new Material Products, Services and Systems. Both sides need to protect their IP but also need to sell their wares. LinkedIn, with all its existing connections, could open the door to a much more widespread take-up of Inventions and so benefit Society, Business and the IP owners. The intent is to improve on the current way we deal with this topic area and so enthuse more people to see/understand the value of Inventing. 24d Leah B. This is just what our work force need to bridge the gap between employees and employers. Brilliant! 24d Catherine B. LinkedIn could become part of the onboarding process where employees are encouraged to create and maintain a profile 25d Ghislaine Barbara M. Brilliant! 25d Syndi S. Well said and very exciting! 25d Sri Alexander V. Good luck with your 10-year plan! If someone can implement it will be LinkedIn. 25d David M. Good stuff and a very exciting goal! 25d Tom C. Jeff, You're spot on.......yesterdays work force, as well as the future, must have accessibilty to education on all fronts in the Retailer Industry. Our members are constantly reaching out via our recruiter for trained/responsible retail associates. Unfortunately our industry hasn't embraced certified field staff. NARMS will continue to invest in our future by offering reasonable training platforms and engage with our retailer partners and members. 25d Clament L. Spectacular 25d Chad G. Abundance. 25d Tom R. Fantastic vision for LinkedIn..... 25d Natalia R. Brilliant! That's a light at the end of the tunnel! 25d Geoff D. Amazing! 25d Steve B. Everything you said justifies my efforts this semester to have my university students sign up. They will be tapping into a resource that becomes increasingly useful as their post-graduate years progress. 25d Gordon Martin Vision with action promises first step to achievement 25d Dr. JAGDISH MITTAL Indeed it is a big vision to digitally map the global economy. 25d Danny V. Part of the difficulty of jobs and availability of the workforce is that the two things are not evenly distributed. Once we get over the distance between work and worker, we can solve that problem. How about emphasizing the availability of telepresence jobs, or encouraging companies to consider them instead of requiring the movement of people and their families? LinkedIn could drive a great deal of change in this direction, given the large influence it has. 25d Mariana T. BRILLIANT VISION! 25d Benjamin B. Great Article. Why ? 1) Linkedin is changing the way we network (whether we like it or not) and as a consequence the way we work. Thus, it is interesting to see its long term vision. 2) Being able to build a long term vision is key for engaging people (inside & outside the company). This is part of Leadership. In my view Jeff Weiner has given us a good example of a long term ambitious vision (maybe I should write dream). Are we able to express our company (or our team) long term vision as did Weiner? This is a good test :). Just give it a try! ;-) I bet we will like the result anyway… 25d Melanie S. One of the most inspirational visions and missions ever. And a useful one, at that! 25d Leasa O. A vision that quite possibly could be a huge important step to our growing technology. 25d Yaniv S. Great vision with real value to us all!! One question - will Linkedin cooperate with Facebook and other social networks one day? 25d James F. My organisation is predominately interested at this present time in finding private lenders for our group of selected borrowers in the real estate market. We have an unique concept that guarantees the private lender a quick turnaround ROI. Any advice on finding private lenders would be greatly appreciated. Good luck with all that you're doing, I'm sure that you'll reach the lofty heights that you aim for. 25d The Fear Doctor (. I think that vision will add a lot to our world. Regards Vince 25d Adahman A. May your lofty inspirations come to fruition soon enough. 25d Muhammad Nauman A. Wow! That is what you call a 'vision'. Looking back at the distance covered in the past few years, this is very much possible. Thanks for sharing. 25d Mark K. Great vision and mission. Wish LinkedIn business in Korea. 25d Yu(Leo) L. brilliant and great idea! hopefully Linkedin get it achieved before it's blocked by GFW:) 25d Jarek G. it sounds so real! Good luck! 25d jirapan P. Thank you very much for your information,that's great. 25d Kent O. Thanks Jeff. Reading Linkedin CEO mindset makes me so sure that as a Linkedin consultant, speaker and trainer, I will have big future. :) 25d Avinash W. Very true perfect statistics will give you perfect direction! Avinash Wani 25d Usman Z. Hi Jeff !! You are on the right pathway. keep it up. I wish you & LinkedIn every success in future. 25d Virginia A. Wow! Very inspirational and so wide in scope it barely seems possible.....but then again look at todays mapping and ability to connect so much data together which already exists. The Internet and Facebook wouldnt have seemed possible just a few short years ago so it is very exciting to think what the future holds. Also your point that education will be key and our workforce needs to be nimble and ready for change will go along way in keeping the American economy thriving. 25d Md R. wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 25d Mukesh P. user data can be so powerful. map the current job demand to give direction to job seekers on what job profession is trending. Awesome! 25d Jacob Cherian Amazing . This will surely rewrite the way we work and live in the forseeabale future . 25d Gaurav S. I think retention is the key factor here. Giving members reason to stick on will be a big task. As new formats of professional networking will swipe the user base away. 25d Mary M. B. Agree with Jeff's ideas. I asked myself: whether to open up more several columns discussion, involving about the current U.S. economic policy positive and the negative impact; there are plans to open several successful business model, organizational assessment, teaching business philosophy led some no enterprise can succeed. Hundred Flowers to the beauties of spring; exchanges in order to promote more innovation. 25d Mark O. The vision sounds great, many logistical, cultural and political hurdles to jump I imagine before it could be a reality. I wonder if the bigger question is not about member retention and attraction going forward. Why do people who are only joining now, sign up? 25d Inder C. Great idea! Jeff has a great vision and I completely support him. This will help the professional people around the world to match their skills and expertise with the industry needs and requirements. We are in the process of developing FOURTH DIMENSION education model to create super business executives to meet the demands of the highly complex and compliance global business environment. 25d Jun Tanaka Matching supply and demand of working capital was nothing I had thought about. I personally think that Angel & Start-up matching would be an interesting platform to create to boost economy. 25d Mike Van Horn I love the idea! But I want to make sure that you include in your world graph--not just the large corporations that use LI for hiring--but also all the tiny companies and solo-preneurs that use LI to build commercial and professional connections. My question to Jeff: What are your sources of data on all this? For the big companies, and for the small operators? How can we characterize the economic value from our interactions on LI--both direct and indirect? 25d adeeba Z. good to learn 25d Keith O. Great vision, Jeff. Now, all we need is for Congress to establish a bipartisan vision for America and to just 'DO THE RIGHT THING.' 25d Anthonia O. Good to hear! 25d Ralph Y. First of all thank you for sharing......and by the way that is one of the key reasons I am a member. Sharing across geographic barriers and collaborating with like minded (not always) professionals not only bring value to LinkedIn, but more importantly (to me) value to our industries. The realtime collaboration is a huge advantage if everyone plays nice in the sandbox. From a financial perspective it would be interesting to model over time the migration of labor to jobs by industry and see how someone in a given industry (like information security) the migration impacts corporate budgets and affects the local economies. 25d Chuck Piercey I feel LinkedIn has lost touch with the basics - management of professional identity and connecting those professionals with opportunities that can use those skills. If you want to have an 'economic graph' then work for Amazon - they have a much more practical data set for that. I pay for LinkedIn to have someone focused on 1) helping me put up a shingle and then 2) finding and doing useful work. Right now the LinkedIn feature set does not satisfy job seekers or recruiters in spite of having the best assets for both of those target customers. Beware the chimera of trying to reproduce the success of FB - LinkedIn should follow its own way, staying close to the spoor of its user's needs. 25d Bruce B. This is so logical and Jeff has such great vision. The power of the internet is so resourceful!! Very exciting information!!! 25d Dan H. Great insight to the future of job searches and connecting skill development with emerging gaps in the market. 26d Mali Gesmundo Fantastic! It is the future isn't it! I intend to understand and use it more and more. So will everyone! 26d George N. Great Vision. 26d Angel Muñoz ....which companies to acquire, global economical trends, worldwide and specific trouble indicators, socioeconomic behavior, wants, needs, does, the true 'pandora's box'. Do you already have plans how to control the monster? It is certainly an interesting vision for any curious mind, would love to see it from the other side. Nice work. 26d Richard L. W. Please correct us if we are wrong on this, but didn't Zuckerberg leave the country to avoid paying taxes? If wrong, we do know one of the Founders/Presidents of this or another top social media site left for those reasons, and honestly, we would have done the same. Hopefully, we have a capitalistic economy forever in this great country of ours, but the current path is disruptive of the small to medium size business succeeding. MAXX 26d Sabina M. I think this is a great idea and should be pursued with great passion. 26d Kevin W. Sounds like a great idea. Also agree that teachers/parents should encourage the younger generations to get into the game as earlier as possible. 'Chance favors the prepared mind.' Louis Pasteur 26d David R. Thanks Jeff.....you are truly onto not only what`s needed for today but also for tomorrow !! 26d Michael K. This is a great vision and gives us all an idea of how we can use LinkedIn in the future. Thank you. 26d Janet N. Absolutely wonderful. It is most refreshing to hear about dreams that can truly make a difference in the lives of virtually everyone. Keep up the excellent work! 26d Neil S. This is both a simple and amazing vision to future possibilities. Thank you Jeff for sharing the new possibilities of this amazing digital community. 26d Andreas S. Great idea. If you take it to the next level with regards to future casting of careers and demand for emploment, the educational institutes can benefit. Right now most graduates from post secondary are coming out with 10-15 yr old career training and models. If one could trend the future demands then these students could hit the ground running. 26d Martin L. My God man ! Ambitious much? I love this. I am just glad that I lived long enough to see someone beginning to achieve some of the stuff of dreams that haunted my youth. A truly game changing use of technology for the greater good and betterment of mankind itself. To help people and companies individually achieve many things that governments , by their very nature, can't. A win-win of epic proportions! 26d Francis F. Great visions! But pleases me more is your great action! 26d Kerry S. Great stuff. Graphing is great, but I'm even more into predictive capabilities--where will these connections go in 5, 10, 20, 50 years? That's what is needed most; getting a better handle on current data will help us get there. 26d Jaume C. What a incredible project. please take into account in development of your program, tools to find the geniuses profiles, hidden in the net, to avoid, a too big standardization. Standard is good, if do not avoid, to find the mentioned geniouses, or those special people, great in his job, but dificult to describe. 26d Marc G. Working on a college campus for the business school, I can relate to the potential for students. I am often preaching to any that will listen that students should complete a profile on LinkedIn and begin building thier network as soon as they arrive to campus. Waiting until your senior year to begin networking is too little too late. 26d eduardo A. The wonderful thing is that through the LinkedIn network to meet people like you men and women of good professional special wisdom intelligence of a human formation looks on their faces that they are people who have never gone through difficult times as severe as that the crisis is normal in every human life but I see that joy in his face outside and the outside seriousness that makes seeing others as respect but there must be a noble heart can socialize if exite contodos loving man and die as you have done for the world by land by society by the pro men and die desmaparados who need their hands of their experiences of their profession all they have spiritual riquesa materials ustede human one God of heaven bless you all those who have joined the network without this we could not be sociable with others pdriamos not know nadien in the world of internet is time that everyone is friends with everyone because the human species came into the world so that to be a member of a human world as yours 26d Tony Thornby Firstly I have to say - 'Wow that's what I call blog engagement': So many comments in just 2 days. On the downside, I hope that doesn't mean mine will be a lost needle in an enormous haystack. My feedback is that there is an increasing trend for both ends of the working age spectrum for people to be solopreneurs, owners of micro-businesses (5 employees or less) or to work with a network of part-time workers. I know so many people who now operate in this way and with a portfolio of activities, rather than just one. This group have different needs from those wishing to be employed in SME or corporates but should also be a key 'target market' for LinkedIn. 26d Thomas L. This bears some resemblance with Hausman and Hidalgo's work on the Atlas of Economic Complexity. This is a graph of the product space of a nation and how it evolves over time (such as when a country shifts from agriculture to industrial). It sounds as if the proposed economic graph is a micro-economic extension of the macro-economic map in the above atlas. From Hausman/Hidalgo: 'Ultimately, the complexity of an economy is related to the multiplicity of useful knowledge embedded in it. For a complex society to exist, and to sustain itself, people who know about design, marketing, finance, technology, human resource management, operations and trade law must be able to interact and combine their knowledge to make products. These same products cannot be made in societies that are missing parts of this capability set. Economic complexity, therefore, is expressed in the composition of a country’s productive output and reflects the structures that emerge to hold and combine knowledge.' More here: http://visualign.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/the-atlas-of-economic-complexity/ 26d David Long An interesting insight into the future of LinkedIn - but aren't you a bit guilty of believing your own hype? I was rather hoping that a piece entitled 'The future of LinkedIn...' might have drawn reference to the one thing that gives LI it's value - us, the members/users. LI seems to be going backwards at the moment, but maybe it's a blip before another surge forwards? For example: The Apps have all disappeared, no longer can we link to company blogs, or Slideshare accounts (don't start me on that one - why did you turn off the multiple accounts linking to a corporate account?). I also co-manage a group with over 40,000 members. The trouble is, co-manage is a euphimism nowadays for 'spam controller'. Unless real, positive steps are taken to help the members then the risk is that the 10 year vision is one full of tumbleweed as we all decamp to the next platform that promises a business networking eutopia. 26d Deborah Collier I understand the objectives and it works, this will be incredibly valuable 26d Todd T. I love the possibilities here, but would like more functionality in simple ways that will improve my experience and increase LI's value to users. With respect, my top 5... 1 - An 'Inner Circle' group (10-12) within my connections to easily share ideas with a small, trusted environment. 2 - The ability to search a connections contacts specifically. If I have a meeting with a contact and want to ask for introduction to other CEO's, app developers, CPA's or whatever, a tool to search his contacts and identify candidates would be valuable. 3 - Have notes automatically save rather than require a click of the save button. I'm typing in the notes field because I want the information saved. 4 - A deeper ability to search my 1st connections. Based on title, company size, etc. 5 - Some type of follow up functionality, particularly if it can tie into my calendar or better, a LinkedIn task list. I love the 'big picture' and am excited to watch what LinkedIn will become. These are small ideas to make an immediate impact. 26d Greg B. Would be great to to overlay job needs with the degrees selected by incoming university freshman in order to determine if the collective university systems will create students with degrees that are worth the student investment and government assisted (tax payers footing the ultimate bill and many cases) loans. Difficult to predict 4-6 years down the road, but Linkedin job trending should help. 26d Vivek Khandelwal Excellent vision of a connected economy....... 26d Rahid Alekberli Excellent approach.. 26d Nagarajan S. Excellent action !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..................... 26d Kennedy C. Your dream to develop the world's first economic graph stands. I love how LinkedIn connects me to endless opportunities and through groups many business problems that took months a few years ago now takes minutes. Your vision is inspiring... 26d Eric M. What a great vision. Connecting and communicating, mapping reality and allowing us to identify economic opportunity. This next decade is when we'll see the power of technology help civilisation evolve faster than it ever has done before. 26d Faye H. An excellent example of content marketing in action! Very nice. 26d Catharina van Staveren Dear Jeff; Love this Very Brilliant and Most Beautiful Plan! 26d Theresa C. Visions and visionaries are critical so a community doesn't stagnate. However, what caught my attention was, 'Reid Hoffman and the other founders of LinkedIn initially created a platform to help people tap the value of their professional networks, and developed an infrastructure that could map those relationships up to three degrees. In doing so, they provided the foundation for what would eventually become the world's largest professional graph.' On a much, much smaller scale as an example (since we're for the most part human first, corporate/business second), a local charter school started with an amazing concept. Its founder wanted kids to be able to work at their own pace - graduate early, get college credits, do amazing things - or on the flip side, slow down and master skills. The trouble came when the founder left, and the remaining directors, etc., strayed from the original concept. The whole thing, while still in existence, does not meet its initial goals set for students. In fact, it's received significantly lousy scores ever since they 'strayed from their mission.' Sometimes, working slowly, testing, asking members, and being willing to concede when changes are not right (and going two steps back if necessary) is a good thing. Granted you're looking years ahead, but for god's sake let's not let this become just another FB... please! 26d Ewa N. a clear distinction between vision and mission. That is it 26d ANG K. The return of the market forces. May the force be with you! Linkedin will always be relevant if your team focus in helping members to have better economic returns via social media, unlike FB. 26d David J. Kathleen S.’s comments are spot-on regarding the recent dilution of Linkedin features. Yesterday I received an email abruptly informing me of a new “Lindedin profile,” which would take place the next day. Believing this was a hoax; I forwarded it to Linkedin’s support. About an hour ago I saw the changes the email was referring to on my Linkedin homepage & profile. Wow, ouch… the new Linkedin design has this retro, pre-Web2.0 look to it! The email wasn’t kidding about the “simplified” or simpleminded design change. What’s more disappointing is the lack of communication Linkedin used to inform its users of “streamling” key creative applications. Hopefully using Wordpress, Slideshare & Creative Portfolio Display applications featured with Linkedin will continue to be seamless with few disruptions. I’ve always enjoyed working with Linkedin & have had good support from their technical department. However this recent transition is not encouraging & it’s not a good example of professional communication or user support. 26d Monique H. This vision illustrates a leap into the deeper end of metrics and analytics Companies must mine data for next level visioning, development and monetization opportunities. We just have to keep asking questions related to the potential of such information and remain open to the possibilities of multiple trajectories. Next level visioning requires educational developments, as Russell states, and an increased reliance on skills based assessments in addition to experience. 26d Sharmistha R. Hi Jeff, Great vision. I am hoping all these comes true soon. We have many unemployable youth just because they don't match the skill sets required. This would help them greatly! 26d Michael S. I share your enthusiasm on the vision and look forward to see an acceleration in the implementation and flawless execution of the mission statement – retaining, managing and developing the top talent that will realise this vision is key. 26d Kathleen S. From the ground perspective, the features that are being developed and those that are being taken away seem to be diluting LinkedIn to 'just' a job board rather than the business networking platform that it started out being. It feels like chasing revenue in rather than providing a platform to create a new economy, vision or opportunity. 26d Reid Hoffman Great, succinct statement. Key to accelerate here. 26d Pedro C. Great article, nice ideas for linkedin future. 26d Brandi C. Jeff - Thanks for sharing your knowledge on the vision & evolution of LinkedIn with the user community. Staying tuned... +Faiz Alam- Please help me understand your reasoning....? Based on your profile, you’re the managing director of a consulting firm focused around wireless technologies which in essence, is a 3rd party service provider of SME consultants to clients. How is this model not caparable to what 'recruitment agencies' do? 26d Russell R. Okay, sorry to buck the starry eyed trend in this comments section, but I cannot help but notice this vision is ignoring one gargantuan issue. The employment gap and a skills gap exist largely because there are a bunch of people who are not the least bit interested in writing code. Great that any system can connect a dot between a job and a person looking for work, but when the thousands of open jobs are mostly based on computer languages that thousands of people have already decided they are interested in learning, the system has only solved the wrong problem. 26d Dawn C. LinkedIn has a B-HAG (Big, Hairy Audacious Goal), and that is awesome for the rest of us! I enjoy dropping in every day to check out the latest news. This brings to mind a GIS class I took a while back. There will probably be snags along the way (as there is with any project), and provided the team does periodic reviews, they should be able to overcome any issues that creep up. I will love to see it when it is finished. I hope the sources see the potential and provide the information needed to create an accurate map. Good luck! 27d Alberto G. More features for groups management and sharing to groups feature in the mobile app shall be welcome!. Many, many thanks.... for LinkedIN. Cheers!. Alberto ( Seven very active groups owner/manager) 27d Miguel T. I think this is a very interesting view. 27d MOSS U. Economic graph to connect globe is possible on social platform. Great work needs to be done to engage state leaders to Linkedin. Inspiring article Jeff 27d Daniel C. It's exciting to think of the possibilities this article discusses. I think it would be great if LinkedIn added links below each comment allowing users to 'reply' to or 'like' each other's comments. Doing so could increase engagement, foster dialogue, and develop new relationships between members. I've seen this done effectively on other sites that use a discussion tool called DISQUS. I think the LinkedIn community could really benefit from something similar. 27d David Gadd Great write up! Just keep it to the 'Professional' sector and LinkedIn will continue to grow and enjoyed by many! 27d Nathan H. I love the vision. Keep at it! 27d Jeff Weiner Silvia, thanks for your comment. In this case, use of the term 'economic opportunity' vs. 'job opportunity' was deliberate. While LinkedIn is highly effective helping members find jobs, that use case comprises only a small % of our total engagement. Content such as LinkedIn Today, Slideshare, Groups, and Influencers generates ~5x more activity than Jobs. LinkedIn is now used to create economic opportunities in a variety of ways, including entrepreneurs looking for investors; sales professionals converting cold calls into warm prospects; journalists sourcing stories; and members sharing professional knowledge that helps them to be great at the jobs they’re already in. 27d Kevin Dingle Jeff, I hear what you are saying with regard to the long term direction of LinkedIn. However I'm a paying customer and a huge advocate for using LinkedIn as a professional networking platform that I log into daily. In the past year I have seen some of the applications and tools that I use everyday being removed form the site. I really liked features like Events, TripIt, and the ability to pull demographic information on my personal network so that I can see where it is and strategically plan how to improve it based on my professional networking needs. On the other hand the number of introductions have been dramatically reduced. As a paying subscriber this direction concerns me and diminishes the value of the site. Even the new profile look & feel is no longer one of professional networking it feels like social networking which is the last thing I'm looking for from LinkedIn. Please stick to the BUSINESS functionality and stay away from social trends that do not have any viable business relevance. Leave the social waste of time things to the purely social sites that I'm not on. You're moving away from what your subscribers value about LinkedIn, please come back!!! I would really appreciate hearing form someone at LinkedIn regarding these concerns. Concerned Subscriber 27d Dominic M. Well...in two more years there is going to be roughly a 93,000 workers deficit in professionals in Big Data.....better start getting them now. Exciting field of work and exciting to see how we will improve on how to use the info to change the way and efficiency of business, 27d Partha R. Formidable future indeed, history has been a witness - countless number of times - 'absolute power - corrupts absolutely' - only one thing will stop all this from happening - organisational ego.. I can already see that creeping in into their system.. 27d Raymond (ZhiJun) Z. Map the global economy AND me! 27d Gary R. This, and other big data work may provide an interesting paradox to marketers. As we move boldly into the world of targeted marketing and being able to quantify data to provide data driven decisions, the consumers perceptions will change as they see the realities. Consider the impact of demonstrable ROI on well branded higher education institutions and their less expensive competition. Will be a much better way to make an informed decision. 27d drs. Yassir H. Jeff, nice insights..! here are some clues to make this vision a mid-term strategy: - Start small, by gathering economic facts of three local governments (eg. US) and local job-seekers, - Create a platform for ideas'exchange between company en jobseeker - Keep monitoring and make LinkedIN subpages compatible with what offer and search - Share successful match-makings - Evaluate and compare the LinedIn DMap with other instruments that must be time-consuming :-) - Good luck! 27d Kelvin S. Jeff, it's important to have a big vision, but much more important is to relate this to how this will impact your customers. I notice that neither your article, nor your own personal profile mentions the word customer (or customers), not even once! I say this because I really don't like any of the major changes that you have recently made to LinkedIn - the mobile app prevents me from using the full functionality of the web version on my smart phone, while the new profile sucks. And I don't recall any survey asking me whether I like and want these changes, or any option to opt out of them. Unless you listen more to your customers, I promise you that your grand vision will fail. 27d Caroline R. we all be watching and following the progress..... 27d Daniela H. Interesting approach ... 27d Imtiyaz B. Great Vision....Kudos to the team!!! 27d Sue L. I find your vision to 'digitally map the global economy, identify the connections between people, jobs, skills, companies, and professional knowledge -- and spot in real-time the trends pointing to economic opportunities' absolutely compelling. Looking forward to experiencing it being realised. 27d Aune A. Hi Jeff, Great vision, Keep it up ! 27d OLUSEGUN KUYE JAMES Jeff, my appeal is for you and anyone that will be involve in this project not to limit it to your location alone, try as much as possible to to cover all continents especially Africa. God bless you. KOJ 27d Tom Bird Jeff, this is a truly great vision and one we share at DigitalAgencyExpert.com. One major hurdle we faced in research is to ensure best fit of matching buyers and suppliers is how do you homogenise data to ensure potential buyers are comparing apples with apples when looking at suppliers and where does that data come from and how do you verify it? A tricky hurdle which I think we've overcome in Digital Marketing procurement - but only after detailed research on what those buyers want to know. The very best of luck with your amazing future. 27d Pius H. Jeff, keep going the journey, then it is an essential part of a real global economy. Currently we life in a world where global economy is understood as the chance of materializing on non-uniform legislation and tax systems and where skills and capabilities are caught in large global companies with masses of dependents. LinkedIn and even more the promises of your vision are essential building blocks to create a real global economy qualified to create global wealth. The first step in it is that people can articulate, prove and advertise their skills; the second is to choose where and what to contribute; the last to get a fair recognition. And yes, it will always need visionaries, leaders and contributors. I’m excited about what’s coming! 27d George K. Interesting approach ... 27d Shibu W. Quite a vision! Best wishes! 27d Barbara M. You have a great vision which is most probable 27d Syed Muhammad F. Nice Article 27d Anirudh K. Jeff, your clarity of vision and mission is amazing,, 27d Sailor S. Very exciting and profound objective! So far so good! I have a very good experience working with your people. Thanks for this contribution to the world! 27d Hans Lak Jeff i can see how Linkedin will be able to reach that vision and even show us holographic business search Linkedin can become the match maker not just for companies looking for people but also for ideas looking for money and projects looking for partners! A BRIGHT FUTURE! Keep up the GREAT WORK..i used to spend most of the time on Facebook not ANYMORE Linkedin is where the action is for all people who want to CHANGE this world! Together we build a brighter future! 27d Marcus V. Audacious Vision! 27d Sacha Nand S. I have personally observed that you are exactly moving towards the proposed vision. hope to see the practicality of the mission. It'd be really, really amazing to see the the gap identified of skills and make the concerned universities and institutes know, its like the supply chain management of the skills and intellectual capital. Wish you all the best. 27d Eugene B. Share the same vision of possibilities! I believe that professional success based on Who and What you know. We're (at resumup.com) trying to provide this info for people thinking about their future careers! 27d Douglas K. Thanks Jeff and the visionary people at LinkedIn. What a great intelligent way of organizing the world's labour force in the 21st century. This is a great way of connecting all those Professional publications that used to publish things relevant to their own fields and others dont get to read about unless they subscribe or pick up a copy somewhere and read about what's happening in other industries. LinkedIn provides a sort of live update on whats happening around different industries and where they are trending. All this tends to provide a picture of where a local section of the economy is at and the kind of solution it may need inorder to go further forward. 27d Ramoliya H. Good Concept.. 27d Ritesh K. Engaging thoughts and a nice framework. This is clearly a strategy to merge the gap between the aspirants' requirements and the available options. It will be interesting to see how the thoughts translate into actions. 27d Daniel V. Great ideas - nice vision - a lot of tools. But innovation is unlimited. 27d Kavita S. Can't wait to see the world's first economic graph through Linkedin. Considering Linkedin's performance (in terms of value created for members) so far and the passion of the team that works @ Linkedin, its not too far that vision becomes reality! 27d Belinda G. Where do I sign to start working for Linkedin ? :) This could be mindblowing, 27d Mohamed R. It is very effective website for business and communication. 27d Sean W. Profound and dynamic concept. I look forward to the possibilities! 27d Carla M. Amazing... I`m proud of being part of LinkedIn community! 27d Rabia S. Really impressive concept! Thumbs up guys! 27d Md.Masudul K. Linked In is helping me a lot. When I do facebook I hang out with friends, sometimes with some new friends and use it for product marketing. It doesn't help me to improve any professional skills, doesn't allow me to connect, meet or chat with professionals. Linked In is a perfect place for career development rather than wasting valuable time from the life. I liked the vision of Linked In. My warm wish for you. 27d Teri Ross Hi Jeff , many of us would appreciate it if you could comment on our discussion: 'Are the New LinkedIn Endorsements of Any Value?' at http://linkd.in/XM9GPg . There is some great feedback on this feature that your development team might find useful. 27d Paul M. Everywhere I go people in KC ask what is going on with the NHL these days....I refer them to my Linked In page...they now know what I know....not that it is everything but it is something instead of being 'cloak and dagger' about NHL matters. 27d Susan B. Linked In is about connections and if you see connections you have a vision of where it all leads and that's why Linked In is a visionary. You were my first social network, believe it or not, way before Facebook. Thanks for sharing your vision publicly. 27d JD GERSHBEIN Fantastic vision, Jeff, and beautifully articulated. Watching with great interest and sharing your passion. 27d Bill E. Yes, I'll bite on the vision -- all good thoughts. But if you're truly bent on 'ensuring we work wherever our members work -- everywhere,' you might start by correcting the annoying problem with the LinkedIn iPhone app that still refuses to recognize an incoming linkedin.com link (e.g., clicked within the body of an email message) and asks if we want to 'Get the app' (that we've already got) or stare at the 'in' logo and a spinning wheel forever. 27d vamsi K. Good to see the projection of using DATA, the key to unlock the future. I had the same confusion as Silvia when reading this article. Thanks Jeff for trying to clarify your vision... believe its good to define the scope & context of economic opportunity you are envisioning here. 27d Johnson B. Opportunities and beyond! Thanks. 27d Liang W. Amazing leap beyond today! 27d Opu N. Innovative visionaire, thanks. 27d Thomas O. that is the kind of vision that sets LinkedIn apart. Great stuff! 27d Sasha Alexander P. Very inspiring article. Thank you! 27d Maureen S. Thanks for sharing your dreams and inspirations - very compelling! 27d Mike D. Jeff, thanks for sharing the mission and vision. Linkedin is helping many of us grow our networks, while allowing for research and information of companies! Great information! Keep growing! 27d Willie C. Great sharing Jeff and I concur with you vision! Thanks to LinkedIn for bring an evolution in making an easy way to stay connect globally & locally with just a click a-way exchanging ideas & valuable professional knowledge through various industry across the board. 27d Deleone D. This is an excellent idea. I'd really like to be a part of something like this, and to see us not just simply talk about it, but be about it. Seeing something like this come into fruition, would be absolutely amazing!!! 27d Denise B. Simply fascinating! 27d Olarewaju O. Dear Jeff,you and your great team can do it.Just as President Obama redefined the 5-letter word (FAITH) in his speech,delivered after the 2012 election.He said,HOPE IS THAT STUBBORN THING INSIDE US THAT INSISTS ,DESPITE ALL THE EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY,THAT SOMETHING BETTER AWAITS US SO LONG AS WE HAVE THE COURAGE TO KEEP REACHING ,TO KEEP WORKING,TO KEEP FIGHTING...’’According to the Bible in Hebrews 11:1,FAITH is: NKJV:Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So,through your faith,your team can do it.I wish you all the best.Cheers!!!!!!! 27d Stephen H. Appreciate your perspective ... to stand in what is imagined possible ))smiles 27d Aas M. Jeff and team, best of luck in achieving your goals! very good artcle indeed. By the way, I love your idea of professional Authentication (endorsement / recommendation) provided by couligues (former and current) and professional friends/connections. Cheers! 27d Tafia L. A. Pringle Cheers! Great and clear vision. I look forward to witnessing the change....@ Rebecca C - I concur! 27d John B. Jeff - I really appreciate the vision. Although I agree with it heartily, allow me to tweak a cognitive bias you exposed, and I think make an even stronger case for your vision. By citing that WSJ article and making the statement 'There is a widening skills gap where the existing workforce has been educated and trained to obtain the jobs of yesterday and not the jobs of today and tomorrow' you repeat an accepted truth. But I would suggest that rather than simply focus on the 'under-skilled' workforce there is a more nuanced and complicated truth for the inability of otherwise intelligent hardworking people to find employment. In the days before many who share this bias graduated from college, corporations employed something called 'middle management.' Middle management was able to take employees with talent and tailor their skills to the needs of the business, thereby affording the business access to a much broader and less expensive candidate pool. While over the short-term there were significant advantages to eliminating the cost for these middle managers, over the longer term, this approach is proving to be a sub-optimal model, as businesses now find it difficult to employ people who aren't an exact fit. We've lost our 'Eli Whitney' interchangeable employee capability. In fact, many businesses today require the employee to come in and teach the organization, rather than the organization having the ability to teach the employee. That's not to say that there are not people who can use a skills upgrade; there clearly are. But what was once a symbiotic relationship between organization and candidates is becoming less and less successful to the detriment of both, and one would think both would move to the center. Although I see some candidates doing so, I see very few organizations doing so, and I think this is becoming a competitive error. Your vision of having vocational schools and colleges capable of picking up the slack for organizations that have lost this capability based on data from LinkedIn is profound. I wish you the best in achieving it, and let me know if there is any way I can help. 27d Faiz A. Recruitment agencies create the gap between opportunities and talents. Linkedin is helping to wipe out these ill-educated, so called head hunters, who with a computer and phone at home judges the suitability of a techie for an IT position, without realizing that their skills only allow them to use Ctrl+F on a word CV. They shouldn't exist, but they do, thanks to their relationship with HR on a mutual benefit basis. It's time for corporates to accept this bitter truth and acquire talents directly. But who will act, the CEO? Nah, he is also governed by the HR policies and no one can take on them. Here is what the best employer say on their career page- To all recruitment agencies: Google does not accept agency resumes. 27d Wayne Warrington Jeff, it is great to read about your vision for LinkedIn as it pertains not just to the near term but for the decade ahead. Even though business on the Internet seems to move at the speed of light, planning for the future and how consumers and businesses will interact needs to include the long term vision as well. Looking forward to the future with LinkedIn. 27d Sean Patrick M. Does anyone else think that one corporation controlling this view is good? or that this economy will not have a LinkedIn tax associated with it? 28d Heidi F. Nicely stated Jeff. Keep up the great work. In global social strategy, leaders ability to access the knowledge capacity of their extended networks and to identify where they can provide value is key. LinkedIn has been a powerful tool for beginning this process. As functionality improves, and users discover the potential, I believe your economic graph can have a great global impact. Kudos! 28d Frank S. Jeff, your article provided a wonderful vision! Just don't lose sight of the true value of the social network by being too fixated on the words of Zuckerberg. Critical to the value of having social networks lies in their ability to provide a richer depth of communicating than other channels. You said, 'Reid Hoffman and the other founders of LinkedIn initially created the LinkedIn platform to help people tap the value of their professional networks, and developed an infrastructure that could map those relationships up to three degrees.' To have ANY professional network that is 'active', not 'passive,' you need to not only have exceptional abilities to communicate, but it is critical that you surround yourself with people who understand your vision and what you stand for (your professionalism; your humanness; your ethics, values, and morals). If you don't establish THAT in your professional network, your in trouble, because no one is good enough to succeed without the help of great people. So, fine. How do you find great people to put a professional network, or a great staff together? Well, as a business owner, a founder of USIIA, an originator of the AOL Greenhouse, and an early supporter of Dana Boyd before she became the Microsoft social networking guru, I can tell you what you shouldn't waste your time doing -- you shouldn't establish screening mechanisms based on keyword ontologies (like Monster and/or Careerlink) to make your initial decisions for overwhelmed HR departments! The value of LinkedIn lies in the social network and its characteristics to allow those connections in a professional network to really communicate more than just keywords (to me this is why LinkedIn was always on the right track) and even Facebook was not). This core of LinkedIn as a social network allows mutual connections or LinkedIn Group members to really get to 'know' one another. Getting people to focus 'just' on resumes (and we do this with young people) is like looking for those who are begging to leave their current jobs (not a great practice in HR management) -- unless they don't have jobs. Either way, you can pretty much agree that this pursuit will not get the best caliber candidates (just a lot of them). The best way to get the right cultural match, the right experience, the right people, in the right place, at the right time is to focus on approaches that allow them to actively become involved in conversations that allow you or HR to get to know more about their past, present, and future yearnings -- to get beyond the HR mechanics, beyond the economic role and money/benefits issues, and beyond the Twitter-like soundbite approach -- and to be able to set a platform where a deeper vision of professionalism abounds. I do so hope that this critical aspect of what you already are starting to do better than your competitors remains a crux of your short, medium, and long term strategic initiatives moving forward. I feel that it is ... but I'd love to hear more clarity on this. 28d Joshua T. Very cool, thanks Jeff.. Keep it coming. 28d Steve L. Brilliant vision! 28d Yan Yanko K. I think your ultimate dream is great. The only problem is that Linkedin is still too difficult to comprehend for alot of users and I mean users from tech-nations like Israel. I think the first step Linkedin should take is translating the platform to more languages. Linkedin is awesome and I hope to see this platform spread and grow furthermore 28d Ryan R. Great articulation of the power of LinkedIn's platform. Inspired by this vision every day! 28d Jennifer H. I like - A LOT! 28d Jim M. Love the vision!! Keep it up; Jeff! 28d Jim B. sorry, that's Adam Davidson in the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/magazine/skills-dont-pay-the-bills.html?pagewanted=all 28d Rebecca C. I love that LinkedIn wants to set up the infrastructure for the professional network and then get out of it’s own way. Brilliant. To many companies don’t understand the value in this. To an earlier comment about a WIIFM strategy… In my opinion, LinkedIn’s platform is long lasting based on the very fact that it’s not all about WIIFM and more about the global vision and setting the stage for long-term insight into economic growth. I’m sure that the executives running LinkedIn have a very clear business plan to be around in 5, 10 and even 20 years from now. One of the main drivers of successful use of LinkedIn is that you don’t make it all about you. Utilizing LinkedIn as a network building platform creates “pay it forward” opportunities. The leaders of LinkedIn understand that and are, in essence, doing that for all of us. 28d Anton N. Why isn't LinkedIn working on visualizing career information on individual or small group level? 28d JB FLOYD Jeff, great concept and I look forward to see the to fruitation. If this empowers growth as anticipated, I see a lasting impact on the economy and will drive new channels for employee development and retention. 28d Sugata Sanyal Jeff: Great idea. Few points for us to ponder (for a moment think that I am working for you at LinkedIn): When the Economic Graph is ready, it will have hugely complex connectivity. I think we will need to contain sub-groups where like-minded people are offered like-minded jobs, perhaps at the meta level. Once people start going deeper, finer connectivity can be shown e.g. like map from a great distance and the same stuff from near distance. It is a very positive move at LinkedIn. Wish you and your group all the best. Best regards: Sugata 28d Rachel M. A great read..... The future is going to be extremely exciting! Good Luck Linkedin with your vision! 28d Linda R. Excellent article. Thank you for sharing. 28d Arsalan R. the power of collaboration and social media really working well together...LinkedIn lead the way! 28d Adriaan K. Jeff. YOu may be about to create the best collective professional network, ever... think of it.. if we could bring linkedin professional network and knowledge into boardroom and policy decision making? YOu are not only mapping economic activity..you may actually create economic opportunity! 28d Brian S. Very interesting article! As a parent of young adults, I am very interested in this project. 28d Jack C Crawford I hereby challenge LinkedIn to halve that decade (ten year) goal of an economic graph to five years! Great post. 28d Guy Borgford Very cool article. Big vision using big data for big change. Without high aspirations, there are no great achievements. 28d Ron V. Getting the right person for the right job at the right time, is a goal worth pursuing. 28d Rahul M. Great! Loved it. However, once you have all this information- how are you going to empower us- the common professionals in the network? There has to be software that helps us sift through this mass of information to take better decisions? Else, if you only provide services to corporations and organizations to use our data LinkedIn could turn into a nuisance rather quickly. So we need to have software that allows common folks to sift through and make sense of all the mass of information just as big organizations can. You could also extend this beyond opportunities and skills to training requirements and providers etc. In the same way, LinkedIn is great for B2B marketing. Since, I want to reach out to particular profiles in particular industries, you guys are a gold mine since you hold the key to self-selected networks of professionals most likely to be from similar educational backgrounds or industries etc. However, again the question is how do you balance the rights and needs of corporate marketers vs. the individuals who have set up the profiles? In other words, in order to realize this potential you have to empower or give greater controls in the hands of both individuals and corporations over what they can do and how their profile is used. Also, find more ways for LinkedIn to be the place for professional interactions on the net- Virtual meeting places, adding chat or other interaction abilities to LinkedIn events etc. Also, can we have conversations on this LinkedIn comments section? I mean, so I could reply to mr. xyz etc.. 28d Osama F. Dear Jeff I can say a great achievement thank you 28d Charlene S. Thank-you Jeff for taking the time to invest in networking people, concepts and ideas. It is because of you and your partnerships; people like myself are able to mentor and be mentored into improving ourselves towards having a better community through influence. As people make the world move and as some people like the phrase, '..Time is money..' I take the position of thoughts of time can be well spent. 28d Silvia P. Uhm I think you guys at linkedin are making a bit of confusion between what's a job/career opportunity and what's an economic opportunity. I wonder if this conceptual error is actually part of the marketing strategy. But just to point out changing a job or finding a career opportunity it is not an economic opportunity. The economy includes investments, markets, politics and a lot of other things. It is sad to see people that makes a strong commitment on data be so unprecise. 28d Evan B. Professional graph, great vision Jeff, having worked on a Commerce Graph matching consumers to affinity/sentiment of products/brands, I understand its a big challenge but the rewards are also great because the data is priceless, and creates the basis for services (like targeting, segmenting, browse, ranking, trending, curation elements). Moreover, owning a graph of information means you own an identity, for example at eBay we look at Social Identity from Facebook, Twitter, G+ and Commerce Identity from PayPal or eBay MarketPlace, both of which have different use case and auth requirements, and I think that LinkedIn definitely owns a major portion the Professional Identity space which is a valuable asset in itself to derive other product features like 'Connect.' 28d Yael M. Figure out a way to buy Monster.com 28d Kristin H. Amazing - using the data like this and looking at it in a 'new' way is the future - I'm an Economist and Mathmatician at heart, but recruiter by day, so this hits on all the interesting points for me :-) I have ALWAYS said the gap that exists between schools and especially colleges and the workforce is sizeable and certainly the ways to try and 'shorten' it seem to all have pitfalls, and none have provided the answer. I couldn't get a job after i graduated in 2004...and i had earned 2 degrees in the disciplines mentioned above.. so, identifiying opportunity through the real data would the key. Great article. 28d Christopher M. Interesting. This platform is backing into skills/talent - in the same way it has sourcing. It will be interesting to see how this aligns or disrupts executive/contingency search, skills development, and even education. If you take the long view, a few industries (like those above) will be radically transformed (by this platform and others). Heck, they have already. Eventually, I suspect we'll see a successful reverse-engineering of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc., to the point where we can build inexpensive, easy-to-assemble social meshes that are controlled - and monetized - by individuals (us), not by platforms we use for free. 28d Jared J. Thank you for sharing, on behalf of those of us who actively seek to create the 'jobs of today and tomorrow.' 28d 'SEO' Saša Cazar Future in the making. Amazing power. 28d Grant Saxon R. Interesting to read your view of a potentail outcome. 28d Renita M. R. I would love to figure out how enter the data science field without the extra university cost. 28d Connie M. Linkedin is helping my family in many ways. Thank you! 28d Pablo H. We are ready to face the future! We need to re-design the way of how things can change in economic terms! 28d Felicity G. seems like an inspiring idea combining the fast-moving areas of analytics and social media. hope to be part of social business in the future 28d Jay Deragon Your vision is in line with the current shifts from tangible capital to intangible capital which represents the shifts of the Social Era. People. jobs and commerce follow the graph of intangible growth factors. The new measure of value creation in the 21st century is a measure of the intangibles which has never really been addressed until recently. Imagine Linkedin having a tool which allows members (employees, partners, investors and suppliers) to rate the intangible capital of member businesses. In the 21st Century marketplace where 20% of value comes from the tangibles, Smarter Companies focus on the 80%, the intangibles. Soon there will be technology that enables quantification of the intangibles to be measured by the stakeholders rather than the historical internal subjective measures. I'd love to discuss this further with Linkedin.......... 28d Julien H. wow, great vision, thanks for sharing.. already when i just look at my network graph i get goosebumps :) 28d Carl Emerson-Dam Ground Breaking - What´s next mission, a low Carbon economy world graph 28d Tom K. Well stated Jeff. Linkedin is such a simple concept but so well executed that it can impact the global economy in a positive way. By watching it evolve into a strong networking tool without the pitfalls of Facebook, it will clearly have a long term positive impact on unemployment globally. 187 million members pretty much guarantees that someone we need to do business with is already here and referenceable. 28d Gary W. Can't wait to see it ! 28d Olivier F. Very exciting vision, Jeff. I think that the digital revolution is more powerful than the revolution brought about by electricity. The Web is to knowledge what electricity is to energy: electricity allows us to store and distribute energy, the web allows us to store and distribute knowledge like never before. In that respect it will completely change education. LinkedIn could help in transforming the way we educate teen-agers. i have a few ideason this topic. Congrats for LinkedIn expansion. 28d Zulfi Ali B. Thanks Jeff, Wonderful insight....Cheers! Zulfi 28d 尺.人月尺冊月 Great Vision! Good Luck ,Jeff. 28d Jeff Weiner CEO at Linkedin Following 235,615 followers JEFF'S RECENT POSTS From Seinfeld to Sushi: How to Master Your Domain January 7, 2013 Three Pieces of Career Advice That Changed My Life November 19, 2012 What Kobe Learned From His 'Zen Master' Coach November 11, 2012 See all Jeff's posts MORE THOUGHT LEADERS Follow Jacques Attali Président chez Attali et Associés What can we expect from 2013? 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