After posting yesterday on LinkedIn Does KM, I went back to further investigate the Company Groups tool to see what else I could learn about it. But it was gone! I came up with five possibilities.
1) Someone had flagged me as not employed by The Firm. Possible, but not likely since relatively few people had formally joined the group. I contacted my co-bloggers and the link had disappeared from their pages as well.
2) Another company had reacted to the tool and “suggested” it be removed. Again … possible, but so few people knew about it, not likely.
3) A developer uploaded code to the production server instead of the development or testing servers. Possible, but again not likely since companies like LinkedIn typically have very well-defined protocols for software process management. And they wouldn’t leave it up for five days.
4) The Company Groups tool was supposed to be loaded only on the “for fee” side of things. Maybe. If anyone who is paying for premium service can see this function, please let us know.
5) The Marketing and Programming departments don’t communicate well. This would mean the programmers followed their software development protocols, but didn’t keep marketing in the loop. Again … possible but doesn’t make sense.
In the end, I am left quite curious. The only information I have is what I found when I went into my History and found the Group page:
You are not authorized to view this page LinkedIn takes privacy and security seriously. We want to provide spaces for groups of professionals to discuss news, ask questions, and share information. To find out more, you may contact LinkedIn customer service.
Thanks for your understanding.
I also sent an e-mail to one of the few addresses I found on LinkedIn’s site asking about this. No word back yet.
Halloween was yesterday, but we’re still left with a mystery.