From DSC:
Hmm…I wonder how job seekers and job providers could benefit if IBM Watson were to team up with LinkedIn.com/Lynda.com? And/or for those freelancers who are seeking to work on new projects with those organizations who have projects to be completed…?

I’m thinking Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based job exchanges/marketplaces, with the engines constantly churning away through — and making sense of — enormous amounts of data in order to find people just the right job for them.

For example, someone in Texas wants to work part time in special education and their LinkedIn.com profile shows that they have x, y, and z as their credentials and that they have taken a, b, c, d, and e courses (which the person could also find on the “marketplace section” as having been necessary in that state).  They are looking for 20 hours a week and, as they live in San Antonio, they need something in or near that city.

Would this collaboration bring something that other current job exchanges don’t?  I’m not sure, as I don’t know how much data mining is occurring with them. But the scale of the two companies — along with the technologies and the strategies that they are pursuing — could present some interesting affordances.

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This idea of the need for such a marketplace/mechanism takes on all the more importance if it’s true that we are living in a post-jobs economy and that getting new project-related work is key in putting bread and butter on the table.

Without having looked at this very much, it appears that LinkedIn.com has already been pursuing this type of goal/vision, as seen with the work they are doing involving The Economic Graph.

See:

• Goodbye Jobs, Hello ‘Gigs’: How One Word Sums Up A New Economic Reality — from npr.org
• Items re: the post-job economy from Harold Jarche