My good friend and colleague on LinkedIn Dave Maskin — founder, owner and operator of WireNames.com { check him out } recently posted the following LinkedIn Answer:
The original question from Dave out on LinkedIn Answers.
The rumor is that Linkedin is about to become a paid subscription job board …
… and scrap the q&a, groups, our profiles and all discussions, as we know them, etc.
If that is the case, are we all simply wasting our time here, as, after their IPO, Linkedin will most likely simply disregard and wipe away the very people who have built this site up?
It’s their site and it’s free, yes that’s true, but do the owners of this site have any idea how boneheaded this move is, not to mention really rude to the millions who use the site daily…?
I found this to be a rather interesting rumor and decided to post my ‘Answer’ or reactionary response to add to the mix.
Here’s what I had to say:
I’m sure this sort of thing can happen to any of the social networking sites ‘out there’ that we all contribute to and participate on. I think it would be incredibly naïve ( but not outside of the realm of narrowminded thinking and possibility ) for ‘the owners’ of LinkedIn to suddenly decide to make the site a paid subscription service. Of course, they’re just trying to monetize this big, brilliant experience that services thousands upon thousands of professionals on a daily basis — and who can blame them?
But, key to all of this is a funny little thing about the social web. We’re all assuming ‘the owners‘ are some dudes in suits in an office in an office park in a city in a state in a country in the world — when in fact, ‘the owners‘ of the site are us. Yep, that’s right — WE own the site. After all, WE put our profiles up here; WE contribute to the crazy zillion status updates and hook our Twitter feeds into this experience; WE answer the questions ( or Answers or whatever their called — I think its now called ‘The Old Quora’ ;] ); WE post or apply to jobs; WE set up Groups; its all us all the time.
WE own LinkedIn.
And I’m sure that a certain percentage of LinkedIn participants would pay for these services on a subscription basis. But I think a LOT of people won’t. And they’ll just go to another social web experience or 3 ‘out there’ that offer the same thing — or some portion of the same thing — for free again.
But, this is evolution on the web. Live, real, amazing evolution of systems. And evolution — or decisionmaking — on the part of people ( or ‘users’ they would call us, right? We’re ‘the users’, they’re ‘the owners’ … ha HA! Right! Sure, okay … tell me another one ).
So, what I suggest moving forward — use the site and use it wisely. Take screenshots of valuable contributions to LinkedIn as often as possible. Updates to your Profile. Content posted to Groups. Questions, Answers and assholes. Go forth and interact — realistically knowing that:
‘They don’t NEED to give us LinkedIn for free. They could shut down the site tomorrow — they could just … take it away … take it away from all of us. This sort of service — this site — and similarly any social web experience — can all go away or change or evolve at any minute of the day without even advanced warning.’
I mean, let’s at least give thanks and praise — LinkedIn is a wonderful experience. I use it daily and appreciate the connections I build and the way I can reach out to new prospects or partners. Its been great. And I appreciate it.
But we OWN you LinkedIn.
We OWN you.
Be nice.














03.01.11 iCan’tMeet 0
Image via Wikipedia
okay — i apsolutely needed to post about this one because it is apsolutely hilarious from a ‘live user testing’ scenario
aight
so here goes
i signed up for the free trial to a new web conferencing solution called iMeet … i think i actually clicked on an ad on LinkedIn + i was extremely excited because the visual design + the promise seemed to be everything that Dimdim was supposed to be … + after working for both WebEx + Dimdim over the years, i still think these technologies just aren’t quite right yet, they’re like still in the larva stage or somehting, right?
anyhow, it was cool to have the grand professional excuse to check out a myriad of competitive online conferencing solutions during my short but rocky stay at Dimdim { recently purchased by Salesforce dot com, NOT a direct result of anything i did for the Dimmrz } — i really got to dig deep + think about all the features + functionality i would want from a virtual meeting product … i even got so inspired by the crazy swirling activity ‘out there’, about all these meeting experiences, that i fantasized i would have the time to compare, contrast + blog about meeting software + put my design thoughts ‘out there’ through the website ‘binarAwardz‘ where we would not only do a product analysis, sort of spinning the wheels + doing the heuristic review of each site, but we would also give out awards to amazing Webinars { hence the ‘binar part of the domain name } in a very platform-agnostic sorta way
cool idea, right?
anyhow, when i saw the ad for iMeet on LinkedIn i knew i needed to click here
i need to know if they finally got it right, right?
i mean, what if they were able to do what we couldn’t do at WebEx or Dimdim? nobody really does this right, right? i mean, everyone uses Skype, + i think that Skype is probably the most elegant solution ‘out there’ to date { let me know if you happen to know of others that are really working effectively, both for ease-of-use but also somehow simulating some sort of real presence } … others i know of, that are in my virtual meeting radar, include: FuseMeeting + GoToMeeting, but i’m sure there are others too
so, 2 first impressions to share here for iMeet
firstly, like … + i don’t even know how to say this, but … so, everything looks so cool + pristine, i mean … its like this nicely designed experience that doesn’t even belong in a browser … just the sign up is cinematic … you know they were goin’ for that ‘Apple Design‘ shit everyone is looking for right now, you know? drives me a little crazy, but i guess there is a formula to this stuff + business owners are just askin’ for it { in more ways than 1 ;] } … so, here is this elegant promise that quite literally alludes to Heaven … there’s a beautiful, nebulous horizon, a sky full of desaturated clouds + little birds flying by … + as you sign up they’re putting you in your own box somewhere near the center of the screen … the metaphor is a little strange, but this is your iMeet product i guess, this is you on iMeet … so, they’re building this wonderful expectation up, this amazing + heavenly experience + then …
BLAMMO!
i can’t fncking sign in
yep
you got it
i don’t remember now if it was due to my own impatience, but for some strange reason the experience, almost assuredly due to its high level of Flashedness, the experience was lagging as it was building my iMeet Profile out + for one reason or another i didn’t get the expected email from the system + i couldn’t sign in with the credentials i thought i just established in the sign up flow
ho
ho
ho
WRONG
i mean, we’re talkin’ 2:13 am a few weeks back + i’m somewhat disappointed, a little motivated to get it working no matter what, + just plain exhausted + needing sleep … i think i emailed them, so on + so forth … no immediate response, but maybe 20 minutes later or more i was finally into an experience that i couldn’t even really fully test because the context of a ‘meeting’ includes more than me, right? + nobody else is ‘out there’ at 2:34 am that i can ‘poke’ or rattle awake to do some heuristic analysis with, which is too bad
i barely used iMeet
i might’ve logged in 1 more time
it just LOOKS so fncking cool
so
secondly, i tried signing in today, right? i forgot my password + follow the ‘forgot password?’ flow + i get this strange error message that makes no sense to the average human, but in DevSpeak it means that someone forgot to come up with a post-trial upSell message that could have encouraged me to ‘try again’ or buy a subscription to iMeet
huge wasted opportunity
but, whatevs, right?
its their product + i can cry if i want to
but then, here’s the motherfncking kicker — here’s the bloody cherry on the experiential cupcake of missed opportunities + Freudian slippage supreme
being the UX dude that i am, i decide to find a way to get in touch with them + let them know about this crazyAss message:
Password undefined local variable or method `logger’ for CdpRest:Class #
… + how this could be a golden opportunity for them, right? if they change that message, they might have me for a little more
so, i hunt around for a contact form + after 6 minutes or so finally find some footer item, lamely tucked away + nearly invisible, but i find it … i fill it out + then realize after spending another 2 minutes or so that …
there is NO submit button
NO SUBMIT BUTTON
WTFffFfFfF?
right?
what’s iMeet tryin’ to say here? what’re they subliminally letting us know?
sure, they followed the nicey nice standard web convention of letting us get in touch with them on their website, but …
OoOOooOOOoOOOooOPS!
they don’t really want to hear from us
they don’t really give a flying shit in iMeet Heaven whether we iMeet on their site or on someone elses
they don’t really care about getting this right at all
welcome to the onslaught of Horrible User Experience 101
you got it wrong, bitch
wrong again, i’m afraid
+ despite all the efforts to create an utterly beautiful visual experience paradigm, to really get a casual + fun tone of voice goin’ on, to attempt to get some of these critical flows down pat, despite all that … you lose
but its not too late
just start by giving us a ‘submit’ button