I originally wanted to sign up for LinkedIn because it looked cool and to see if I could stoke my ego by seeing how big my network could become. I’m one of those people that, for good or ill, pretty much sees anything where a score as kept as a game, and LinkedIn does a great job of keeping track of the growth of your network. Seriously, though, I’ve already dredged one useful contact out of my network, and I expect that there will be more. Considering it’s only been live for a week, I give it high marks for effectiveness.