Sigh, Linkedin Taxonomy...

The past few days I have been on a Linkedin spree. Having been remiss in updating my contacts, I finally went on the site and started adding away. Unlike Facebook, it’s imperative that you indicate how you know the person. While I get the logic of that, it’s just not working for me.

To illustrate this, I will use the example of my relationship with the fantastic Rob Cottingham of Social Signal (who received the request below and suggested I write a post on the subject). Rob writes for One Degree, and so do I. For months I saw and laughed at/with his cartoons about social media and read the Social Signal blog. In January of this year, I attended an event at HTCE at which he spoke and I introduced myself. The next month I saw him at Northern Voice where we chatted again. This month, I moderated a panel he was on.

So… er, “Other”, I guess …

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‘Kay. I go through this process without about 50% of the people I know - we see each other frequently at events, have a good relationship online and off (though we don’t call each other to “hang” - and so the term “Friend” seems a bit presumptuous of me outside of Facebook). And so, out of desperation, I am forced to go with “Organization” and list the first event I met them at. Or the more vague, “Other”…

Anyone else experiencing this?

8 comments April 7, 2008