You probably like me got messages from your connections on LinkedIn with  “Hi, I voted for you on mixtent”. And did you also check it out?

Mixtent “is building a professional reputation graph on top of the main social and professional networks” it says on their website.

But how is this done? I tested it, and in order to be able to see ones “ranking” one has to choose 25 times between 2 persons in ones network on whether the one or the other i.e. is a better team player.

OK. But. How on earth shall I judge between an old colleague of mine and a business partner on which one is a better team player?! The colleague of course I know, but the business partner? Wouldn’t it be unjust to vote in favour of  the old colleague, simply because I know that person much better?

Luckily, the system lets me skip these answers – which I did in most cases. However, how many users of Mixtent don’t try to stay neutral (and more realistic?) by skipping answers as I did?

Therefore, I do not think that votes on Mixtent will ever give a kind of realistic picture, unless they improve the system.

In my opinion this tool would be worth much more if connected to each individual profile on LinkedIn and make it a nice addition to the already existing recommendation functionality. Including the possibility for the user to display or not display the results. That would help everyone, users as well as head hunters.

Otherwise it will stay just a game – and a game with reputations of people is a bit doubtful, isn’t it?

What’s your opinion? Have you tested it?

Would you agree with me or do you think I just didn’t get the point of the whole thing?

Let me know, cos right now, I really don’t see any point in using this service.