Simplist

@jberrebi if they would allow it, wouldn't linkedin let us do this directly already? i like it a lot, but it seems to good to be true.

@eriktorenberg 1st off as a (semi)-retired rapper I love what you’re up to at raptfm and may have to jump in a cypher with you. Ok, back to work. :) Linkedin blazed an incredible path as the first indispensable professional network. And it built a huge business by achieving massive scale and then charging recruiters and salespeople for the ability to reach out to users cold. That made (and still makes) a ton of sense for the salesperson, but leads ultimately to a decline in awesomeness of user experience. We are really excited to demonstrate the ways in which all of this connection and expertise data can be made commercially actionable for end users without cannibalizing the core focus on Linkedin’s business. If you (and me) and other users signal with our dollars that this kind of user-centric data mining is commercially interesting (for you as well as for them) then we think everybody wins even though our approach is not native to Linkedin’s DNA today. Make sense?

@ronjdub What's the coolest thing you discovered about your own network using Simplist? Any interesting stories? PS - Swell of you to jump on an answer questions :)

@KristoferTM great question! The sheer amount of diversity has been astounding. An early user of our private alpha popped onto my radar because she'd made a "Clowns and balloon twisters" list. I was doubtful this was a real thing until I peeked at her list and saw she had 60+ people on her list. Yeah, whoa. Turned out she was re-entering that line of work (yes as a balloon twisting clown) after 20 years off and wanted to re-connect in short order to figure out who might rope her into gigs. Out of sheer curiosity (and because we try to make our networks available whenever possible to our users) I looked at my own network (my history includes being a former banker, doing startups, ed tech, corp dev, etc) expecting to get no results...I got three (3 balloon twisting, Circus working people, one of whom I'd gone to school with). Just yesterday, I joined a search party for a friend of a friend who's looking for work to use her Master's in Public Health. Do you know how many folks I knew who fit the bill? I sure didn't. Turned out I know FIVE. And at least one of them has a PhD in "Human Sexuality." And we're not even connected on Linkedin. THAT kind of diversity is so cool and reminds me how rich my network is.

It's been super helpful when making quick lists (that I export) for invites to parties and special events. Hoping @ronjdub will pop over to talk more about it.

Just poking at this now. If this works as well as I'm fantasizing this could be really interesting. My linkedin account has become unusable in the last year due to so many VERY loose ties. Maybe this helps fix that.

Comments are on! I'd originally responded here (http://blog.simpli.st/post/89272...) but now I'm in the house. (Thanks @srcasm @rrhoover and @NickNYC10k) @jberrebi, legit issue to consider. Our sincere hope is that Linkedin recognizes that as a team, for the past several years, we have only focused on trying to make these networks more useable and valuable to the end user. In this light we are never trying to siphon off users or build a new “uber” network so much as we take a user-focused view; in order to make it easy for them to get to the right people in any of the places they have connections or are looking to make connections. In fact anecdotally (supported by exit data) we send our users BACK to linkedin to do the “last mile” of connecting with new prospects that our users’ friends or teammates have referred. We actually want to create value for the network by first recognizing that insights about the connections and paths are in fact highly valuable to business users (and businesses). That said, if you’d like to help us make our case to the product team at Linkedin, shoot me a note. :) Love to know what you think about this.