Job/Career Networking

Connections & Validations Specification

Original Document completed on 4/23/03 by Cynthia Typaldos

Slightly edited on 10/10/03 and 11/12/03

Legend

Jargon	Full Terminology	Explanation/Definition
ProfGuild	ProfGuild (see www.profguilds.com)	Member profile in the appropriate professional guild (which is also called a ProfGuild)
Connection		A link between two or more member ProfGuild Profiles that documents their working relationship
RFC	Request for Connection	Request by a member to one or more colleagues to create a connection together
member+	Paid member only
member	Either a paid or unpaid member
member-	Unpaid member only
IndustryGuild or IG (see note 1)	The collection of all of the ProfGuilds in one industry	Software industry: marketing, sale, finance, engineering, etc.

Connections and Activities

This specification covers the Connections and Validations of a member’s ProfGuild Profile (Career Persona, or profile).

Activities will be described in a separate specification and cover logs, reputation, contributions, recommendations, comments, groups, and projects.

What are Connections?

Connections are the successful existing and past business/professional relationships of two people (or a group of people). Members highlight the Connections that reveal the aspects of their career that they wish to emphasize. A Connection by its very nature cannot be done alone. Both members (or all members of a group) must agree on every aspect of the Connection before it is “published” to the members’ ProfGuild Profiles. While all participants in a Connection have to agree before a Connection is published, each member has a lot of control over the situations in which that Connection is visible on their ProfGuild profile.

Why wouldn’t both (or all) of the members of a Connection want to publish it on their ProfGuild Profile?

There are lots of reasons such as:

Although the Connection was a successful business relationship, the member does not want to highlight that part of their career. However, s/he is willing to help out the other member(s) who do want to highlight that part of their career.
The member may only want this Connection to be visible to a selected set of viewers. I have not thought thru who all the categories of viewers might be but here are some possibilities:

Members who are Connected to this member
Members who have Validated this member’s Connections (more on Validations later)
Members of a certain type (e.g. same ProfGuild, same IndustryGuild)
Special viewers – e.g. VCs, Recruiters/Hiring Managers
Only by special request

Other???

There are two major parts to a Connection. The Relationship which identifies the parties involved, the time frame, the environment, the accomplishment, and other specifics, and the Validations which are external confirmations by other members that in fact the Relationship is reported correctly (in the eyes of that validator).

Connections can also be traversed from member to member and we will have some basic data mining tools. Eventually we will have some visualization and tracking tools that allow members to step back and get a full overview of who has worked with whom (of course this is only those relationships that members have decided to codify into a Connection).

Relationships

Relationships have fixed fields and some free form fields. We will have to experiment as we go along to see what turns out to be important. There may be some fields (e.g. company) that are pulled from the ProfGuild’s official lists of fields, some that are created on the spot by the two (or more) members, and some that are part of every guild’s relationships (at least in that functional or industry space).

Validations

Validations are a key part of Connections as they add to the reliability of the Connection. They also link members together as participants or observers of a particular time/place/business activity even though the member doing the validating may not have been an actual direct participant.

Validations can only be done by and to paying members+, but cannot be done by or to non-paying members-.

The link in the member’s+ ProfGuild Profile Connection goes to the validator’s ProfGuild Profile, and vice versa. Note that the link in the validator member’s+ ProfGuild Profile to the Connection cannot be hidden (when the Connection is visible). That is, if a member is willing to validate the connections/relationships of other members, then s/he must be willing to make this visible in all situations. (Connections can be hidden though.)

Connections will be star color-coded according the eBay standard*. For consistency, WP will define the break points for each new star color otherwise moving from guild to guild and trying to grasp the validity of the Connections would become very confusing. [*This is supposed to be funny but still make the point that standards should be followed whenever possible.]

Why will WP use the eBay star colors? Three reasons:

The star colors have become a standard for measurement of online business relationship.

Gives us an opportunity to do a deal with eBay.

Millions of eBay users can’t be wrong…they bought into these star colors big time so there is some confidence level that these colors resonate with internet users.

Below are the eBay rating colors (in the form of stars). Obviously our Connections will change colors much more rapidly (e.g. no validations = yellow, 3 validations = blue, etc.)

The Star Chart

Stars are awarded for achieving a particular Feedback Profile.
A "Yellow Star" () represents a Feedback Profile of 10 to 49.
A "Blue Star" () represents a Feedback Profile of 50 to 99.
A "Turquoise Star" () represents a Feedback Profile of 100 to 499.
A "Purple Star" () represents a Feedback Profile of 500 to 999.
A "Red Star" () represents a Feedback Profile of 1,000 to 4,999.
A "Green Star" () represents a Feedback Profile of 5,000 to 9,999.
A "Yellow Shooting Star" () represents a Feedback Profile of 10,000 to 24,999.
A "Turquoise Shooting Star" () represents a Feedback Profile of 25,000 to 49,999.
A "Purple Shooting Star" () represents a Feedback Profile of 50,000 to 99,999.
A "Red Shooting Star" () represents a Feedback Profile of 100,000 or higher.

Visibility of Connections and Validations on Members’ ProfGuild Profile

As mentioned previously, members will have a lot of control over who sees the Connections, but much less and maybe no control over who sees the Validations.

How does a member add a Connection to his/her ProfGuild Profile?

One member+ will initiate the Request for Connection (RFC) to another member (or set of members if this is going to be a group Connection). For simplicity right now, assume all Connections have only two members. Note that only paid members+ can initiate a Connection although unpaid members- can participate in a Connection.

The details of this “handshaking” will be very similar to how the RealCommunities’ Mentor and Mentee reach agreement on their relationship using a shared web workspace. For more information look at the Flash demo of the RC Mentoring Application (called CiviServer Experience), selected screen shots of CiviServer Experience. I may have access to the specification and source code if desired. I also have a product brief. More info at www.typaldos.com.

Mentoring demo at http://www.mongoosetech.com/realcommunities/guidedtour.htm

PowerPoint slides starting at slide 30 www.typaldos.com/mentornet.ppt

Assume an existing member+ of any ProfGuild:

· Same guild in same industry (Same ProfGuild in the same Industry Guild)

No restrictions as members+ in the same guild can browse, search and access each other’s ProfGuild Profiles.

· Different guilds in same industry (Different ProfGuilds in the same Industry Guild e.g. Marketing in the Software ProfGuild and Engineering in the Software ProfGuild)

No restrictions as members in the same industry can browse, search and access each other’s ProfGuild Profiles.

· Same functional area in different industry (Same type of ProfGuild in Different Industry Guilds e.g. Marketing in the Software ProfGuild and Marketing in the Automotive ProfGuild)

Members in different industries cannot browse, search, and access each other’s ProfGuild Profile’s except for the name directory (if the member has agreed to publish his/her name). The member+ requesting the Connection must know the URL of the other member’s ProfGuild Profile or his/her name.

· Different functional areas in different industry (Different types of Working Guilds in Different Industry Guilds)

Members in different industries cannot browse, search and access each other’s ProfGuild Profile’s except for the name directory (if the member has agreed to publish his/her name). The member+ requesting the Connection must know the URL of the other member’s ProfGuild Profile or his/her name.

Not a ProfGuild Member

Members- that have not paid the subscription fee can still have complete ProfGuild Profiles except for the Connections section. [Unpaid members- will also not be able to do many of the Activities.] For an unpaid member-, their Connections section will not display (except to the owner/member regardless of the privacy settings are turned off or not. However, non-paying members- can participate in a creating and maintaining Connections and these Connection will show in the paying member’s+ ProfGuild Profile with a link to the non-paying member’s Connection section. That section will only consist of the following text:

NON-SUBSCRIBING MEMBER (Connections are only visible for subscribing members)

Template for a Connection on a member’s ProfGuild Profile)

Cynthia Typaldos’ Connection: ProfGuild Profile Mockup (3)

Accomplishment (2): Designed and built the WP Career Profile Mockup

Timeframe (1): 4/1/03-5/10/03

Results (2): cynthia.softwareproductmarketing.com

Member	Company	Title	Role	Comments
Cynthia Typaldos	Working Persona	President	Wrote Spec	The WP PP was a successful effort as it led to WP raising $10M in angel funding. Each of us contributed 1/3 and together it added up to 10M.
Matt Perez (4)	Working Persona	VP Software	Implemented ProfGuild Profile Spec	Each of us is a genius in our respective functional areas.
Patrick Neeman (4)	Working Persona	VP Web Design	Created Mockup Template	Rapport was instantaneous between the team members.

Validations

Name	Career Guild (6)	Industry Guild (6)	Reputation (of validator)
Susan Smith (4) (comment) (5)	Software Marketing	Software Industry
George Typaldos (4) (comment) (5)	Games	Retail
Buffy the Cheagle (4)	Canine	Household Pet

(1) There must be complete overlap if the Connection is between 2 people, not necessarily so if the connection is with a group. The latter situation is more complex and I will not try to figure it out now.

(2) Everyone must agree on the Accomplishment and the Results

(3) Assume the star color of blue requires 3 Validations

(4) Link to this validator’s ProfGuild Profile

(5) Link to the comment by this validator about this Connection

(6) Link to guilds

How does a member Validate other members’ Connection?

What are Validations?

Validations are a formal indication by a third-party (must be a member+ in any ProfGuild) that the relationship (Connection) as described by the Connecting members is true to the best of the validating member’s+ knowledge.

The impact of Validations on a Connection are visible thru:

· the star color of the Connection (see the eBay star color scheme mentioned previously)

· the validator info (see the Template for a Connection on a member’s ProfGuild Profile Connection (in the previous section).

Template for a Validation on a Connection on the ProfGuild Profile of the connected member’s

See the template for a Connection on a member’s Career Persona (ProfGuild Profile). These validations are on when a Connection is visible on any one of the members involved, and are only off when the Connection is not visible on any one of the members’ involved ProfGuild Profile AND the validator has set the Validation to be “off when Connections are not visible.

Template for a Validator on the Validator’s ProfGuild Profile

This will be a separate page (or pages) on a member’s+ ProfGuild Profile.

The Validation area in a member’s+ ProfGuild Profile looks very similar to the validation itself on the Connection.

Connection Name: WP Career Profile Mockup

Members Connected (1)	Career Guild (6)	Industry Guild (6)	Reputation
Matt Perez	Software Marketing	Software Industry
Patrick Neeman	Games	Retail
Buffy the Cheagle	Canine	Household Pet

(Link goes to the Connection on that member’s ProfGuild Profile)

Updating/Deleting Connections

Since this won’t be possible in the mockup I will not figure it out now.

Updating/Deleting Validations

Since this won’t be possible in the mockup I will not figure it out now.

Paying Members vs. non-paying Members-

What does a non-paying member’s- ProfGuild Profile look like?

A non-paying member ProfGuild Profile has all of the features and functionality of the ProfGuild Profile minus the Connection and Activity section. These sections are built as the member does things that would make them occur, but they are only visible to the member- and not to anyone else. When the member pays, all of these Connections and Activities become visible.

What can a paying member do that a non-paying member cannot do?

A paying member can do the following activities that a non-paying member cannot do:

initiate a Connection (however a non-paying member can respond to a RFC and participate in them, but not initiate them, additionally the Connection will not be visible on the non-paying members’ ProfGuild Profile)
validate a Connection

Non-paying members do not have a visible reputation (this will be explained further in the Activities Requirements document.

Privacy Mechanisms

Members will have lots of ways to make their ProfGuild Profile, or parts of their ProfGuild Profile private or only visible to certain other members or certain types of members or certain types of visitors (e.g. recruiters). This does not need to be part of the mockup.

Searching and Sorting

Paying members+ (and others, such as recruiters) will have ways to search on ProfGuild Profiles, and to traverse the Connections. Non-paying members will have less capability, but just enough to make them want to initiate a Connection, which requires paid membership.

Upgrading from Unpaid to Paying Member – effect on Connections and Validations

When a non-paying member- becomes a paying member+ all of the Connections and Activities become visible to others (subject to the privacy constraints the member has set).

Appendix A: Connection Handshaking