Every once in a while I get asked for social networks connections. Frankly most of the time this comes from younger people than me, because they are trying to build a professional network and get some work elsewhere when the current one is over. I'm not really into facebook things and such, but I had deep thoughts about it. It seems to me legitimate and everyone can benefit from a professional network. So far LinkedIn seems to be the most known and reliable for everyone. I have travelled a lot in the past, and like many of us, have repaired many computers with Puppy on my pendrive. Some people even became usual readers in this forum. And after many years writting each others over here we have come to know us a little bit. So I thought maybe it could be useful for us to link each others over a professional network, and because of crisis times, it would become easier to get some work when we need it
Not that others will offer you a job, but I discovered that when looking for a job, companies will look at your LinkedIn profile and check if you are known as a good person. I know since a few years, it has become crazy in the USA, but there are other countries in Europe where the professional networks are used in a good way. And maybe elsewhere, this is also something we could talk about.
LinkedIn have a "quiet slow" life, compared to facebook, and once your profile is built, it will simply stay there and won't need daily tasks or anything else.
Of course the first name I checked was Barry, but could not find him in LinkedIn
Moreover, we are many to use differents nicknames in various linux forums, so that could help us.
The idea is this: If you have a LinkedIn profile and happens to receive requests from someone whom says he is a puppy builder or IT support, you could PM each others in the forum and check if this is the right person you know. Afterwhile, write a post in this thread to keep it alive (or maybe we could make the thread sticky) and so we know the puppy programmers community is growing up in LinkedIn
We could start by linking each others for the people we are used to talk since a long time. For security reasons and privacy concerns, just keep your real-life name private by sending private messages (PM) in the forum, afterall, this is internet...
So, if you find someone in LinkedIn who says he is "joe" (or whatever nickname) in this forum, please check with a PM before you acknowledge the profile !
...and don't spam PM mailboxes with many request: 1 PM is enough (usually you get also an email reminder sent automatically).
You also need to respect usual PM rules, be polite, and if don't get any answer, or a negative answer, accept it, afterall this is for professional use only and this is business. This is not facebook, and many people are not friends.
Best regards
