Comments on: LinkedIn contacts come to court http://www.stuart-hall.com/2008/06/13/linkedin-contacts-come-to-court/ Current focus: Making people happy. Using social media tools to achieve this! Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:11:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Stuart Glendinning Hall » Blog Archive » Do I ‘own’ social networking contacts? http://www.stuart-hall.com/2008/06/13/linkedin-contacts-come-to-court/comment-page-1/#comment-105 Stuart Glendinning Hall » Blog Archive » Do I ‘own’ social networking contacts? Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:56:51 +0000 http://www.stuart-hall.com/2008/06/13/linkedin-contacts-come-to-court/#comment-105 [...] And of course this was backed up  was the recent case in the UK where an ex-employee of recruitment firm Hays was ordered to disclose details of his profile at social networking site LinkedIn. As a comment on [...] [...] And of course this was backed up  was the recent case in the UK where an ex-employee of recruitment firm Hays was ordered to disclose details of his profile at social networking site LinkedIn. As a comment on [...]

]]> By: Stuart Glendinning Hall http://www.stuart-hall.com/2008/06/13/linkedin-contacts-come-to-court/comment-page-1/#comment-99 Stuart Glendinning Hall Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:21:00 +0000 http://www.stuart-hall.com/2008/06/13/linkedin-contacts-come-to-court/#comment-99 By coincidence I came across a <a href="http://www.selectminds.com/nc/Goodwin_Procter_SelectMinds_Case_Study_Oct2007.pdf" rel="nofollow">nice case study (pdf) on selectminds</a> involving US law firm Goodwin Procter, which aims to foster a culture that is collaborative, entrepreneurial and practical. Scott Westfahl, director of professional development, then goes to make a real plus point about enhancing individual employee's social capital: "Our commitment to developing our people starts even before their first day, for example, as a summer associate, and continues well after they have left our firm. We are fostering a collaborative culture with the hope that all of our employees substantially increase their own personal market value -- both internally and externally -- as a result of the professional development opportunities offered here at Goodwin." <em>Sounds like they've seen the light!</em> By coincidence I came across a nice case study (pdf) on selectminds involving US law firm Goodwin Procter, which aims to foster a culture that is collaborative, entrepreneurial and practical. Scott Westfahl, director of professional development, then goes to make a real plus point about enhancing individual employee’s social capital: “Our commitment to developing our people starts even before their first day, for example, as a summer associate, and continues well after they have left our firm. We are fostering a collaborative culture with the hope that all of our employees substantially increase their own personal market value — both internally and externally — as a result of the professional development opportunities offered here at Goodwin.” Sounds like they’ve seen the light!

]]> By: Roderick Parks http://www.stuart-hall.com/2008/06/13/linkedin-contacts-come-to-court/comment-page-1/#comment-98 Roderick Parks Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:12:00 +0000 http://www.stuart-hall.com/2008/06/13/linkedin-contacts-come-to-court/#comment-98 Social capital has always been a tacit element of sales recruitment, sometimes a principal one, especially in incestuous vertical markets. This translates to largely unenforceable anti-competition clauses in employment contracts. It stands to reason that the exposure of social capital through LinkedIn and other similar networks is starting to be used in a forensic manner as in this example. It's another case of our collective consciousness being slow to wake up to the threats, as well as the opportunities, presented by such social disclosure. Your LinkedIn profile is also your summary CV and thus it is equally unsurprising that some organisations with high value knowledge workers see it as a threat and are considering new clauses in employment contracts that prevent their "intelectual assets" from being exposed on it! Perhaps these developments represent the first signs of an impending turf war over social capital, with enterprise "control freakery" laid bare. I suspect such a war could only reflect badly on the enterprises that choose to fight it and following adverse publicity and reputational damage, they would quietly accept that they "rent", rather than "own", their employee's social capital. Social capital has always been a tacit element of sales recruitment, sometimes a principal one, especially in incestuous vertical markets. This translates to largely unenforceable anti-competition clauses in employment contracts.

It stands to reason that the exposure of social capital through LinkedIn and other similar networks is starting to be used in a forensic manner as in this example. It’s another case of our collective consciousness being slow to wake up to the threats, as well as the opportunities, presented by such social disclosure.

Your LinkedIn profile is also your summary CV and thus it is equally unsurprising that some organisations with high value knowledge workers see it as a threat and are considering new clauses in employment contracts that prevent their “intelectual assets” from being exposed on it!

Perhaps these developments represent the first signs of an impending turf war over social capital, with enterprise “control freakery” laid bare. I suspect such a war could only reflect badly on the enterprises that choose to fight it and following adverse publicity and reputational damage, they would quietly accept that they “rent”, rather than “own”, their employee’s social capital.

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