Passing the Torch

After a year of running the Los Angeles Perl Mongers group, it's time for me to pass the torch. I'm really quite sad about this in some ways since it has been a great experience setting up the guest speakers and getting to know so many LA-Based perl hackers. That being said, my new job at Google really doesn't call too much for perl and honestly, I'm running out of time in a day. I really feel that the LA.pm deserves more attention that I can provide at this time. Stay tuned for new developments, but it does appear that there will be a leadership committee this time around, something that I strongly suggested since this is really more than a one-person job :)

SCALE 5X a Hit!

I spent the last weekend supporting two booths at the fifth annual Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE 5X)! This was the best ever and I never even got to leave my booth. Normally, I attend as an "attendee" and just mix around, go to the various talks, etc. But, given that I'm the manager of technical recruiting for Ticketmaster, I had a duty to perform so I sat in my booth along with my teammates. While that doesn't sound very exciting, I really did enjoy myself. I find that the people who attend SCALE are just plain interesting. SCALE draws from a mixed crowd of open-source engineers, linux sysadmins, networking people, and your all-around technology hobbiest. Basically, it's a great bunch of people.

The grass-roots nature of this event is fostered in part by their ready support of local user groups. The people at SCALE will give a full booth space to local user groups who are willing to do a demonstration. This year I'm running the Los Angeles Perl Mongers (la.pm) so we decided to pull together a booth and demo. The people at SCALE were nice enough to put the booth directly across from my Ticketmaster booth so I could keep an eye on things. Actually, I ended up not needing to because the volunteers at the la.pm help up their end and kept that booth staffed and eager to answer questions (Thanks Juan, Nimish, Randall, Pablo, Rene, and Ateeq!).

Overall, SCALE is a wonderful event. It proved to be a great place for my organization to tell our story (global operations, commitment to open-source technologies, and a heavy emphasis on linux). The la.pm's booth was swamped by people interested in learning more about the organization, the monthly technical talks, etc. If you're in town next year during February, plan on going, it's a great weekend.

The Declining Impact of LinkedIn?

Well people, I fear that what I thought might happen, is in fact occurring. When LinkedIn implemented their "InMail" feature, where you can essentially bypass the normal chain of contacts typically needed to reach a given LinkedIn member, I feared that it would be the end to LinkedIn's health as a community. First, I objected to LinkedIn changing the game mid-season and allowing people to reach my contacts just by paying a price. Second, I was afraid that these unsolicited direct connections would ultimately lose validity, amounting essentially to social networking spam.

I think we're there now.

I have spoken to a number of heavy LinkedIn users, all recruiters, and I have to say that LinkedIn must be making a bundle on InMailing. I too submitted to the "well if they're all doing it" excuse and bought a LinkedIn membership. I guess at the time I figured that the company has to make money somehow even if I do have serious reservations. That being said, I have noticed that the number of people who will respond to a nicely worded, friendly InMail is dropping and dropping fast. I think there is going to be a special category in the spam box for LinkedIn unsolicited contacts!

Do I have an answer, well no I actually don't now that Pandora's box has been opened, but I do wish in a way that the system remained closed. I guess I'm idealistic, but in the long run, I think it would have been healthier for the LinkedIn social network community to keep the chain of contact intact. I'd love to hear what you have to say.