Net, a friend who also works for Facebook, described how Israel’s politicians were the latest to use Facebook Connect prominently.

For those searching for a job, Reid gave a few tips on how to work with social networking sites:

Digital Self-branding: The important thing today is how you brand yourself on the Internet. Its good to be careful not only about how you establish profile but also how you run it on social networks. One of the things we do for you is we actually try to SEO your profile, so that people will Google you. Managing reputational information is that if you have an embarrassing picture it will be hidden because the LinkedIn profile is found first.

Endorsements: You should get some of your friends to recommend you, so you have recommendations there.

Brands and social networks:

At LinkedIn, we use our polling tool to allow people to run market surveys on specifically defined target audiences. When a car company like Mazda advertises and asks which of these characteristics you like the most in a car. From out polling tool, when you click on it, our polling product actually shows them how many people in a region, or how many senior professionals or how many from the Internet industry have said what about their brand.

One of the ways blogging is described is that it is essentially to establish your brand for conversation. Its another way of saying that o.k. I put my brand in a place where people are actually congregating, communicating.

Facebook has these fan pages. They say this is an area they like and this is a soft drink they like. They are treating a brand as another virtual friend.

To save you the cost of a hotel room and airplane ticket, Matthew Bishop of The Economist kindly summarized what he found after a week in the Swiss mountains.

Mainly, it was pretty depressing and will likely get worse!

I found my breakfast with Shimon Peres particularly depressing. The feeling was that the economic crisis will be long, protracted and painful, but my sense from Peres and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is that we will not see peace in the Middle East anytime soon.

Another theme that kept recurring was the rising cost of financing for developing nations.

Developing nations have made incredible progress in reducing the level of poverty and incredible progress in terms of raising people into [higher living standards] and levels of health care. They are now going to be facing incredible difficulty with refinancing their debts.

It’s not just the cost of borrowing for companies that is going up. When countries start refinancing bonds, they are going to face these same difficult financial markets. So that’s a further impact that we haven’t begun to see yet that is going to be trickling through the economic system.

There was talk of China and India being approached to set up an alternate development bank to the Asian Development Bank. There is a desire for such an institution that is not controlled by the US or Japan.

Speakers included the schoolchildren, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel, who sang Biko a capella.

Hearing Desmond Tutu speak was an incredible experience. I have rarely seen someone captivate and hold an audience with such simplicity, humility and light heartedness.

At the end of the event Peter Gabriel led the entire room in singing his tribute to Steve Biko.

By Thomas Crampton

DAVOS, Jan 31: Abhisit Vejajiva, Thai Prime minister, today warned protesters gathering on the streets of Bangkok that they should not further upset the Thai situation.

Speaking with a blogger on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Abhisit also urged former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to return to Thailand and fight the charges against him.

As the supporters of Thaksin – so-called red shirts – gather on the streets of Bangkok, they should keep in mind that the majority of Thai people do not offer support, Abhisit said.

“The country cannot afford to slip back into conflicts and violence and into almost a standstill,” Abhisit said. “People have been fed up with the divisions in politics that have kept the country’s progress back.”

Thaksin, now living in self-imposed exile due to actions against him in Thai courts, would face fair treatment if he returned to Thailand, Abhisit said.

“The Thai government must prove that our country will enforce the law in a non-discriminatory way,” Abhisit said. “It is our clear policy and every intention to do just that.”

ENDSsssss (Full transcript below video)

On a personal note: I was extremely honored that Prime Minister Abhisit recognized my blog (largely due to my interview with Thaksin).

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Protesters are back on the streets today is Thailand headed back into the chaos of previous months?

In the last month the country has made tremendous progress from a situation where we had a barely functioning government. The last month has seen a new government that has begun a lot of hard work and also been able to produce key results.

- Confirmation of the hosting of the ASEAN summit in late February
- All the agreements that need to be signed and passed by parliament
- An economic stimulus package already approved by the cabinet
- The mid-year budget already past the first reading of parliament

I think the country really is moving forward and the people really want this to happen. People have been fed up with the divisions in politics that have kept the country’s progress back. They are now willing for the country to move beyond the old conflicts and the old politics.

What is your message to Red Shirts now gathering on the streets of Bangkok?

I can understand that people have political differences, that I hear their voice and I will try to incorporate the reasonable demands and invite their participation in the future political reform process.

But also, they should be aware that the majority of Thai people and the country cannot afford to let the country slip back into conflicts and violence and into almost a standstill.

What are your views on the future role and influence of former PM Thaksin on Thai politics?

I think it time he came back to Thailand to fight his cases in court, to accept the consequences of the law and sanctions and not to have the country progress kept in check by his own interests.

Is Thaksin still a force in Thailand?

He still has influence, he still has supporters, but the Thai government must prove that our country will enforce the law in a non-discriminatory way.

I can assure him that he will get a fair treatment. It is our clear policy and every intention to do just that.

This is an accidental video exclusive, since no other journalist attending used a video camera.

Government leaders are feeling pushed towards protectionism while business leaders fear protectionism will hurt their business.

Who will win?

Lamy said he is neither optimist, nor pessimist, but activist.

When I asked whether he thought Social Media could help bring about world peace, he suggested I ask Barack Obama.

Sadly, Obama is not here in Davos, so will have to wait on that question.

They will be reporting to the YouTube and Myspace audiences and Pablo sayss that he’s planning to speak loudly so that his ideas sound more convincing. Good idea given, Pablo!

A five-time Davos veteran, I learned a new lesson from the Swiss police: Don’t do videos near the security zone.

Now based in New York, Nora has lived in Egypt, doing Middle Eastern studies at the American University in Cairo and later working in Business Development and Corporate Marketing for a Kuwaiti company.

Matthew will be speaking about here about his recently published book Philanthrocapitalism, How the Rich Can Save the World. I will be doing a video later with Matthew to challenge him whether the recent crisis has not shown us quite the contrary.

Jarvis is also consulting editor of news startup Daylife and was the Creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly. Before getting passionate about the new media, he was a critic for TV Guide and People.

In order to truly know Jeff, one needs look no further than his comprehensive list of disclosures.

Mike Butcher is the European editor of TechCrunch, which was recently named best Web 2.0 and business blog in the UK. He specialises in the coverage of Enteprise Technologies, software, gadgets and social media. In July 2008 Mike was put at No. 47 out of the Top 100 people in London’s creative industry the UK by The Independent newspaper and The Hospital Club.

When he’s not writing about technology, he’s invariably still using it to post on Twitter or update his personal blog mbites.

For the last seven years he has been a consumer technology columnist for The Irish Times in Dublin. He is also a former editor of New Media Age magazine and has written for UK national newspapers including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times and magazines including The New Statesman.

WEF founder Klaus Schwab told the IHT today:

“The pendulum has swung and power has moved back to governments,” said Klaus Schwab, the German-born economics professor who founded the World Economic Forum in 1971 and has been its impresario ever since. “This is the biggest economic crisis since Davos began.”

That Davos gathers many of the world’s top government and financial leaders in one place at this time of crisis should make for an interesting meeting.

This panel features Tony Blair and I will be a discussion leader on new media’s role in helping religious dialogue.

Official title: How can new catalysts – such as the innovative use of technology and social media – stimulate new forms of interfaith and intercultural dialogue and how can they be replicated more widely to move society towards common goals?

This may be “anti Web 2.0″, but one point I would like to raise is that as much as social media is supposed to enhance dialogue and understanding, it can also be used as an avenue to promote hate.

The far right in France has loved the power of the Internet, since they received limited access to mainstream media and faced difficulty getting their message out. Now, with Web 2.0, they can play to their audience and keep out those who do not support their views.

The strength of the Internet in helping you dive deeply into a very specific question can help it become an instrument of intolerance and hatred when people limit themselves to a self-supporting silo of beliefs.

This is stretching the point, but could Web 2.0 turn into a modern-day version of Rwanda’s Radio des Mille Collines in promoting a genocide?

An analogy could be drawn to the nationalistic and anti-foreigner videos posted during the running of the torch.

Any other thoughts on Web 2.0 “helping interfaith dialogue”?

I have started a Delicious Tag: WebReligion

This is a 2-hour session with lead facilitator Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard Law school’s Berkman Center and author of the recently published The Future of the Internet – And How To Stop It.

I have not read Jonathan’s book, but I am quite sure it is excellent. Jonathan has long been a source of great insight for me when working on articles about the Internet.

My fellow discussion leaders:
Peter Bisanz, Director, Entropy Films, USA
Chris DeWolfe, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, MySpace.com, USA
Arianna Huffington, Editor, Huffington Post.com, USA
Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook, USA

The Participants:

* Feisal Abdul Rauf, Founder and Chairman, Cordoba Initiative, USA
* H.R.H. Hussam Bin Saud Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Prince of Saudi Royal Family; Chairman, Zain Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia
* Khalid Abdulla-Janahi, Chairman, Ithmaar Bank, Bahrain
* H.H. the Begum Aga Khan, Founder, Princess Inaara Foundation, United Kingdom
* Fatih Alev, Chairman, Muslims in Dialogue, Denmark
* Kjell Magne Bondevik, President, The Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, Norway
* John Bryant, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Operation Hope, USA
* Lord Carey of Clifton, Archbishop of Canterbury (1991-2002), United Kingdom
* Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
* John J. DeGioia, President, Georgetown University, USA; Chair, Global Agenda Council on Faith
* Mark Ebert, Executive Director, Three Faiths Forum, United Kingdom
* Eduardo S. Elsztain, Chairman, IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones, Argentina
* Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University, and William Ziegler Professor, Harvard Business School, USA
* Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister of the Environment and Water Resources of Singapore
* Shirley Ann Jackson, President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA
* Ronald S. Lauder, President, World Jewish Congress (WJC), USA
* Berel Lazar, Chief Rabbi of the Russian Federation
* George W. Mallinckrodt, President, Schroders, United Kingdom
* Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, Ireland
* Abu Eesa Niamatullah, Imam and Executive Director, Cheadle Mosque, Cheshire & Prophetic Guidance, United Kingdom
* Matthieu Ricard, Director, Karuna-Shechen, Nepal
* David Rosen, Chief Rabbi, International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Relations, USA
* Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Britain and the Commonwealth, United Kingdom
* Pavel Shashkin, Secretary Executive, Economic Council, Department for External Church Relations, Moscow Patriarchate, Russian Federation
* Awraham S. Soetendorp, Rabbi, Jewish Institute for Human Values, Netherlands
* Sadhguru J. Vasudev, Founder, Isha Foundation, India
* Jim Wallis, Editor-in-Chief and Chief Executive Officer, Sojourners, USA