People who have not done well will probably avoid being on LinkedIn. But even that may not help since the reference feature can be used whether or not you are on LinkedIn–as long as one of your past bosses, reports or co-workers is on LinkedIn (and isn’t that true of virtually everyone with 5+ years of work experience?), you can get reference-checked through LinkedIn.

I think we just make it clear how small the (business) world really is, and I hope people will behave more in business as if they lived in a small town (where crime rates are low) rather than in a big city where they can hide behind anonymity, focus on short-term gain and hope to get away with it.

I think too much was expected of LinkedIn in the short term (behavior change is slow), but most people now understimate it’s likely long-term impact on business as we know it.