Topics covered in the book are your profile (make it true, attractive and search engine friendly), accounts & settings, connecting with others (only those known and trusted, “everyone” or something in between), degrees of separation, recommendations, jobs & hiring, LinkedIn Groups and LinkedIn Answers.

My suggestion is that if you intend to get serious about using LinkedIn as a tool for your networking then go and buy the book.

The book has a “blog behind the book” at I’m On LinkedIn – Now What???. Jason also has a category about the book at his blog, LinkedIn book.

Xing wrote this in the information they posted:

A new XING Shop has been established in response to the wishes and requests of our members. Starting tomorrow, you can purchase online pens, card carriers, t shirts, golf sets for your office and other nice things adorned with the XING logo.

The XING shop is not profit-motivated, but is rather an answer to the wishes of the XING Community for XING-related items. The assortment of items will expand based on user requests.

With a network of over 11 million professionals spanning the globe, LinkedIn is an immensely powerful platform. A few of us here decided that we should be doing more to leverage the network to promote positive social change, and LinkedIn For Good is our first step in that direction.

This is a really great way to make use of a network for good causes. Now, if I can only make them add The Hunger Project to the list…

There is a post titled 3 ways to make networking work, a good post about networking valid not only at LinkedIn.

Scott has gathered the entries and more at Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn. The blog posts are categorized and there are many useful entries.

We’re confused. Some of us are downright dismayed. Even some renown evangelists among us have stopped evangelizing. And others are watching to determine whether or not they should continue evangelizing. Still others of us are intensely looking at other networking platforms to join or to start.

Many active members at LinkedIn are concerned about current actions (or lack there of) from LinkedIn. Even though LinkedIn has 10 million members and is growing, numbers is not the only thing they should care about. Customer service is often seen as non-existent, new features pop up but some of them seem out of context or as a change of strategy.

It will be interesting to see how (if) LinkedIn reacts to this open letter.

Here is another comment to the open letter, LINKEDIN: Why a “NIDEKNIL”?.

• How do you use LinkedIn?
• How do you use Discussion Groups?
• What’s the interaction between them?

I use LinkedIn as a networking tool, to build and maintain a network of contacts. My definition of contact, if I do not already know them, is where both of us can benefit from connecting. LinkedIn helps me keep track of people regardless of where they work. LinkedIn also makes me visible, my profile is searchable through search engines like Google and people can find me inside LinkedIn using their network.

Since LinkedIn does not have the functionality of discussion groups I have joined groups at Yahoo Groups like LinkedinBloggers, LinkedInnovators, LinkedinEurope, LinkedinIT and MyLinkedinPowerForum. The reasons are to get into discussions (to share and gain knowledge), to be seen and to get more contacts.

I am also a member of XING. Since XING contains it own discussion groups it is easier to see the connection between the networking and the discussions. Within Xing are both my contacts and my discussion groups, it is much easier to keep track of intersections – finding people who share my interests.

The third question is about the interaction between networking and discussion groups. I would say that on LinkedIn I can see someones profile but they are often rather condensed and kind of a snapshot. In a discussion group I get a chance to interact with people and see them interact with others. It gives me more information about a person, about his/her knowledge and willingness to share and learn.

Update.
LinkedIn Anwers is mentioned in comments. I do not see that as a discussion group since you can ask a question, then any member can answer once. The only way to continue from there is by mail and one on one.