Celebrate Contribupendence Day! July 3, 2008

Want to contribute to your developer community? Want to know what your peers think of you? I’m proposing a new type of meme. Hopefully this will catch fire like Michael Eaton’s Software Meme did a few weeks ago.

Contribupendence Day. That’s what I’m calling it. On July 3, 2008, I am going to write recommendations for 5 people on LinkedIn. And leave comments on Plaxo. And {name your social network here}.

One of the things that I have found, in this wonderful developer community I am a part of, is that we’ve got some amazingly talented people in this industry. But when I look around at their profiles on the sites I mentioned above, you’d hardly know it. Hardly anyone has even ONE recommendation on LinkedIn. Comments (or a presence, for that matter) on Plaxo are slim. Facebook walls usually consist of nothing more than “Hey Steve, what are you doing this weekend?” But yet, when you’re looking for that next job, what’s the first place a new employer is going to look?

So let’s tell the world about the people we work with. Or the people we WISH we worked with. No strings attached. Let’s make sure that when someone looks up your friend online, that they find a glowing (and true) review from a peer. No embellishments, no lies. Just the truth. And do it with no expectation that they will return the favor. That’s just selfish.

I will be picking 5 people from each social network that I participate in. That’s currently only LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Facebook. So, on July 3rd, I hope you will contribute to someone’s independence from online mediocrity. If you have a blog, tell us who you tagged! My list will be here Thursday.

This post was inspired by Marvin Palmer, a software developer for Vanderbilt Medical Center. He wrote a glowing recommendation for me on LinkedIn, and I was incredibly flattered. I hope each of us can do the same for someone else on Thursday. Have a great holiday weekend.