LinkedIn has announced the development of LinkedIn Company pages, which allow members of a given organization to create a page for that organization and link their profiles to it.

This development is encouraging because LinkedIn is the leading social network for professional networking. Company pages could be effective tool in helping people within an organization network both internally and externally. Internal networking can be facilitated by providing a map of the organziation's social network; externally networking can be helped by allow staff to see the backgrounds of their colleagues, whom they might contact in order to find resources outside the company.

For higher education (my field of marketing), LinkedIn may provide an especially valuable role. It already can serves as a recruiting platform for students, faculty and staff. If LinkedIn ever gets its API in place, tools and programs could be developed that allow an institution to create more connections among each group: students might be connected to alumni mentors and faculty advisors; alumni might be connected to other alumni in their professions; faculty with other faculty in their field of scholarship. Insitutions might be able to get more information about the career paths of their alumni, helping to round out research into the impact the education. New graduates might be able to use the network to find jobs through alumni. Internship searches might work the same way. Faculty might reach out to research subjects in particular professions.

LinkedIn appears to be trying to following the footsteps of Facebook, seeing the success that the Facebook's Pages application has brought to the network in terms of attracting advertisers to the network. Facebook Pages were announced in November 2007 and already there are ton of organizations using it (in higher education, there are 500+ Pages, which is the highest count Facebook will provide in their search results).

The only thing missing is LinkedIn's API, which they have said that they want roll out but there hasn't been much progress announced. Hopefully, they will get it going in 2008!

Labels: LinkedIn, social media, social networks.

I today's reality-tv soaked environment, it should be no surprise that folks are experimenting with user generated media as a vehicle for reaching out to potential employers. After all, shows like Top Chef require applicants to submit video auditions in order to apply to the show.

Now, we have some folks experimenting with the video resume:















Clearly, the form is still finding its way, but the idea is intriguing and not without precedent. Certainly, actors and entertainers would be a natural fit, as would visual artists. Animators, motion graphic artists, broadcast journalist and videographers are already posting their reels for review, and it won't be long before photographers, artists and graphic designers compile their portfolios into clips.

As for the rest of us? Video might be an interesting way to break through the clutter, if you can move beyond the "talking-to-the-camera" shtick. Think of it more as a linear presentation and the form can take on new meaning.

Powerpoint might be used to make creative graphics and combined with photos and voiceover (plus video) of the candidate talking about their experiences and qualifications. If used effectively, the video becomes a way to convey communication skills, presentation capabilities and plain old passion for your work.

And, unlike an interview, there's always a second take.

Combine this video with a blog, a LinkedIn profile, a professional social network profile, relavant social bookmarks and/or shared search items and you have the makings of Resume 2.0.

Labels: resume 2.0, social media

I love the title of this new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art: "Design and the Elastic Mind". The exhibit is an example of how folks are trying to use design to capture technological and scientific change and "convert them into objects and systems that people understand and use."

Interesting to see how many try to come up with their own solutions verses those who tap into existing tools via mash-ups.

The Goolge Maps blog has a nice list of items in the exhibit that incorporate Google products:

• BeerHunter.ca
• Flood Maps
• Fastfood Maps
• Safe2Pee.org
• Gmaps Pedometer
• Global Incident Map
• TwitterVision
• Capitol of Punk
• Chicago Crime
• Dart Maps
• Misdaadkaart.nl
• Flickrvision
• Google Mars
• Google Moon

You can also read a review and see a slide show of the exhibit at the New York Times.

I recently attended an intriguing event called Design Meets Business, sponsored by business bookseller 800CEORead (which is located here in Milwaukee). The event got me thinking about the business impact of design, particularly as it relates to interactive design and marketing.

Typically, most such discussions focus on how design creates branding. The lesson is usually bad design makes a bad impression on potential customers. Certainly, this is a important aspect of design, but there is another aspect of the discussion that I think warrants attention: the idea that design creates meaning in business.

Before the invention of the Web, people have been discussing the idea of the information society and knowledge workers. Within this discussion, came concerns about information anxiety--the idea that we are confronted with a gap between data and knowledge and we suffer as a result.

The danger is only exacerbated by the emergence of the Web, which first was a Murky Way of information and then added a cacophony of voices to the mix in "Web 2.0". How we find/create meaning among this sea of data is subject of much discussion (Glut, Everything is Miscellaneous, Wikinomics, Made to Stick, Cult of the Amateur).

Design plays a key role in this world. One might argue that Google's simplified interface was just as important as it's savvy search algorithm for the company's emergence as a market leader. This in a field that was crowded with competitors at the time of Google's launch.

Not everyone is trying to create the next great search engine, however. Most organizations are simply try to make sense of all this information--on the web, in databases, reports, analysis and so forth. The ability to make sense of information, to understand what you know and what you do not know, is critical to success. At least one economist has noted that the ability for an organization to manage uncertainty is the number one distinction that separates things that succeed from those that fail.

Here is where design can help. Information design (and its subset of data visualization) is a specialty of growing importance. Essentially, the idea is that how you present data is more than aesthetics; it is how you create meaning. It is the transformation of data into information.

Information design is sometimes derided as nothing more than charts and graphs. Certainly, an effective use of charts, graphs and maps can facilitate understanding. However, there is more to it than that. Information design can and should offer perspective and context. This can take shape as either a recurring presentation of the information in the same form, which allows users to identify patterns and make decisions based off their experience.

More effective is information design that builds perspective and context into the visuals. Perhaps this is historical perspective, peer comparisons, or an identification of the level of uncertainty.

Some of the best examples are interactive information design, pieces that allow not only offer visual data with perspective, but also allow the user to adjust settings and witness variations over time. Witness examples any time at the New York Times interactive section.

As the amount of information grows (and more and more voices join the conversation), it becomes even more critical to separate signal from noise, to create meaning from chaos.

In such an environment, information design will play a critical role in determining the survival of the fittest.