Following in the footsteps of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. John McCain used professional networking tool LinkedIn Thursday to query members about the biggest challenge facing the country.
By mid-day, the expected Republican presidential nominee had accumulated more than 520 responses to the question, "Please let me know what you view as the biggest challenge facing America and how you would like your President to address this challenge."
McCain added, "I am prepared to effectively deal with these challenges and lead our country as president on Day 1."
Kay Luo, director of corporate communications at LinkedIn, said that any time a LinkedIn user answers McCain's question, the answer gets broadcast to that user's LinkedIn network.
"That spurns more activity because other people will go read an answer or write an answer," she noted. "[McCain] has created a digital bumper sticker that goes on people's profiles. When someone adds that bumper sticker to that profile ... it also gets broadcast to their network that they have joined the 'McCain for President Group' The candidates are trying to create visibility for themselves amongst the professional audience."
In answering McCain's question, LinkedIn member Denise Griffitts, a Web developer, said that illegal immigration is the most important issue that America is facing.
"The costs of illegal immigration are incalculable," she noted. "I genuinely don't understand why our laws are not enforced and why people are not held to legal immigration standards. This is a blight on our land and it needs to be corrected. And not with yet another 'amnesty' piece of nonsense. Illegal is illegal."
Richard Law, CEO of Allysis Inc., noted on LinkedIn that his biggest concern is addressing the "massive, debilitating long-term debt" the U.S. has accumulated under the last three Republican administrations.
"Short term tax breaks or rebates against next year's taxes while spending remains unrestrained cannot continue," Law added. "Restore fiscal discipline. If you need to raise taxes / roll back cuts / rework government entitlements to preserve our long term future, please do so and immediately reinvest this money in our education system, our infrastructure, and our scientific and technological research foundations that we might build with a long range vision for maintaining American excellence."
Jennifer Gray, a software engineer at Google Inc., noted on LinkedIn that she is most worried about the current economic downturn. "Housing is still deflating and many commodities are clearly in a bubble," Gray noted.
"The Fed rate cuts and the adjustment of conforming loans is a help, but broader inflation and credit tightening are of major concern. Low interest rates have sapped the power of the dollar and make the US trade deficit more concerning."
Obama, the U.S. senator from Illinois, in September accumulated 1,500 queries from LinkedIn users when he asked them several questions related to business, Luo added.
But Microsoft's Bill Gates hauled in the most responses ever from LinkedIn users when he asked them in February how the country could encourage more young people to purse careers in science and math. More than 3,500 answers to that question were logged, Luo noted.
For more enterprise computing news, visit Computerworld. Story copyright © 2007 Computerworld Inc. All rights reserved.
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