Technology headlines for May 2013 include: LinkedIn Turns 10, Tin Can API 1.0 Released, Udemy’s Launches Corporate MOOC Offering, IAAP Infographic Reveals Training Need for Mobile and Cloud Technology, Salesforce.com Launches Social.com Advertising Platform, Telework Leads to Career Stagnation

LinkedIn Turns 10 

May 5, 2013, marks the 10-year anniversary of LinkedIn, one of social networking’s founding players. In the last decade, LinkedIn has become a successful public company with more than 225 million members. Founded by Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, and Jean-Luc Vaillant, it has certainly played a big part in bringing professional lives online and making them more social, as well as helping companies recruit potential employees. 

LinkedIn launched before most of the social networks that are considered big players today. It's about a year older than Facebook, three years older than Twitter and eight years older than Google+. And unlike some of its competitors, LinkedIn's team focused early on creating a business model. In 2005, two years after launching, LinkedIn introduced job listings and tiered subscriptions to generate revenue. Now, LinkedIn is generating more than $300 million in revenue each quarter.  

Among some of the remarkable moments in LinkedIn’s 10-year history include the time when President Obama hosted a LinkedIn TownHall at the Computer History Museum with the company's CEO Jeff Weiner as the moderator. More recently, LinkedIn has focused on building out its content offerings by building a platform for influential voices in business to blog and share insights. 

So, although Facebook and Twitter get the lion’s share of media and user hype, LinkedIn has stayed the course and steadily held its footing in the social networking game. Indeed, LinkedIn has stayed all business—carving out a unique niche in a crowded field.   

Happy Birthday! 

Tin Can API 1.0 Released 

Experience API reached Version 1.0.0 on Friday, April 26, 2013. Over 60 developers, designers, engineers, standards veterans, stakeholders and vendors from around the world representing industry, academia and government contributed to an open and collective effort to meet this goal in just over 12 months. 

The Experience API specification Version 1.0.0 marks the first major release of the technology, built on requirements and design considerations going back to late 2008 and research and development (commonly known as “Project Tin Can”) that began in 2010. 

In the spec, Dr. Kristy Murray, director of the ADL Initiative, writes: “My thanks to everyone who contributed to the Experience API project. Many of you have called into the weekly meetings and helped to shape the specification into something that is useful for the entire distributed learning community. Many of you assisted in releasing code samples, products, and documentation to aid those who are creating and adopting the specification. I’d also like to thank all of those who were involved in supplying useful, honest information about your organization’s use of SCORM and other learning best practices. Through the use-cases, shared experiences, and knowledge you have shared, ADL and the community clearly identified the first step in creating the Training and Learning Architecture–the Experience API. You are truly the community leaders on which we depend to make our training and education the very best.” 

The work on the Experience API resumes in mid-May as the working group prepares for specification refinements based on how people use the API over the next year. (A PDF file that represents a formatted “snapshot” of the authoritative specification as of April 26 is available for download; PDF, 1.6 MB.)

Udemy’s Launches Corporate MOOC Offering 

In April, the San Francisco-based MOOC company launched “Udemy for Organizations” to help companies train their employees. The available courses include soft skills, like people management and public speaking, as well as training in common programs, like Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Excel. It also offers courses from the likes of management giant Jack Welch and Lean Startup guru Eric Ries. For a fee, companies can customize course sequences specifically for their needs. According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly 500 organizations have signed up for access to the new corporate offering.

Read more at Venture Beat. 

IAAP Infographic Reveals Training Need for Mobile and Cloud Technology  

Administrative staff isn't being given the training they need to use the evolving mobile and cloud technologies that are being rapidly adopted by corporations, organizations, and governments.  

A new infographic, with data drawn from IAAP and other sources, shows that while more companies are using mobile devices and cloud apps, approximately 6 million office professionals in North America alone get 10 hours or fewer of training every year provided by their employers. About half those office professionals are completely responsible for their own training and get little training support from their employers.  

The infographic includes nine facts that illustrate the unhealthy relationship between the rise of the virtual office and the lack of training for office professionals:

• 40 percent of the global workforce uses mobile technology for their jobs

• 75 percent of the world's largest companies encourage their employees to use their own devices at work

• 58 percent of companies in a recent survey said they've deployed mobile enterprise apps for their customers and clients

• 71 percent of respondents to a recent survey predicted most or all of their tasks at work will be done using mobile or cloud technology

• in the very near future, a majority of employers will be utilizing cloud technology for business

• the number of telecommuters has nearly doubled to more than 3 million since 2006

• Three out five administrative professionals say they get 10 hours or less of training at work every year

• One-third of all administrative professionals are responsible for their own training at work. That's equal to about 3 million admins in North America alone.  

To view the infographic go to www.iaap-hq.org. 

Salesforce.com Launches Social.com Advertising Platform 

Salesforce.com recently launched Social.com, which takes the social advertising campaign management software Salesforce.com gained through the purchase of Buddy Media and adds integrations with social media data from its Radian6 offering as well as customer information from CRM systems. 

Customers using Buddy Media were already able to use Facebook Insights data to create "custom audiences" for campaigns. It was also possible to use Salesforce.com information, but the process was manual. With Social.com, Salesforce.com CRM data access is automated, and the system will also be able to keep a chosen marketing data set, such as one made up of individuals who had purchased a certain product, up to date. 

As for Social.com's integration with Radian6, a Salesforce.com spokesman demonstrated how a user could monitor Twitter hash tags and keywords relevant to a particular brand through a window inside the Social.com interface, then quickly use a wizard-style tool to create a campaign. 

Social.com's integrations with Salesforce.com CRM and Radian6 will become generally available in the third quarter. 

For more information, read the complete article in CIO. 

Telework Leads to Career Stagnation 

A new survey by the Korn/Ferry Institute found that most executives embrace telecommuting as a strategy to boost productivity and allow working parents to continue their careers. However, they also view it as an avenue to career stagnation. 

“While some high-profile companies have stepped away from telecommuting, our survey shows that most enterprises still see it as an important way to drive productivity, increase retention and demonstrate inclusion in the workplace,” said Ana Dutra, chief executive officer of Korn/Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting.  “It is all about driving responsibility and accountability, whether a person works in the office or at home.” 

Nearly 80 percent of executives surveyed in March say their companies allow telecommuting, and 94 percent of executives see telecommuting as an important option for working parents. Despite it being an essential perk for work-at-home parents, however, 60 percent believe telecommuting can limit career growth.  

“While working at home can be beneficial for both companies and workers, it can also lead to ‘invisibility’ that can limit opportunities for career advancement,” said Dutra. “It is important for telecommuters to remain networked as closely as possible with peers and leaders in the office.” 

Moreover, though the vast majority of executives believe telecommuters should be paid as much as other workers in comparable jobs, 2 in 10 disagree with the notion that pay should be equitable, regardless of work location, according to the survey.  

The survey also found that 77 percent of executives have worked from home at some point in their careers, and that 58 percent are telecommuting now.