Insightful InMaps shows: clearly I am from France!
A while ago, LinkedIn launched InMaps, an app, which visualizes your LinkedIn network. I would not call the result of InMaps a map (forgive me for –still- being a cartographer), but it sure visualizes something: my network of connections. There are already lots of great samples to be found. Also, there is a good description of the functionality at LinkedIn, but I still get questions about it occasionally. An additional explanation:
Meaning of the colours
They refer to different strings of your network, e.g. school, employer, societies. If you go through your network, you might find some oddities, because some connections can be part of multiple strings.
Meaning of the density
The more connections you have in a part of your network, the higher the density will be. Bigger nodes means ‘very well connected’ connections in that part of the network.
Meaning of the shape
I would guess that the shape tells you something about the balance of your network. In my case, I have very strong ties to two networks, and several weaker ties to others. My geography bias tells me, that I am clearly from France!
Great new features?
How about: how did my network develop over time? Did I invite my network or the network invited me? How active is my network (what part is growing, what part is not). Must be great to have access to the LinkedIn database…
Just an extra thought: what if we are all done Linking In? Meaning: all of our connections are ‘mapped’. Will that be the end of LinkedIn? Or the beginning of what?