Crisis for Business Social Network as “Ecademy” Reveals Private Messages

There will be a damper on the Ecademy Christmas party tonight after Blogger Paul Walsh alleged that one of the oldest business social networks made public thousands of private emails to the company over the course of four days.

The Ecademy flaw was revealed on his blog and appears to have included private messages sent to the support team by members. Walsh also alleges that he has received messages between the management team discussing salaries and a “pyramid” business structure.

Ecademy started nearly a decade ago and has often been criticised for its complicated and difficult to navigate site which has not changed much, except to add new features, since its launch. Ecademy has also been critisised for its business model which charges users to build any kind of meaningful network using the service. Other practices seem unusual: for example users can automatically and repeatedly invite their contacts to join Ecademy in an attempt to build their network. Users are encouraged to email everyone who visits their profile, resulting in a deluge of unresearched and irrelevent messages for many, something other social networks put measures in place to prevent.

These days, a network based purely on numbers seems odd: LinkedIn ,for example, specifically enables direct connections in addition to chance encounters, increasing the odds for members. Mass emailing is prevented by design. While some have found Ecademy successful, doubt has been cast over the number of genuine connections made by paying members, especially those outside London and unable to attend Ecademy networking events.

I personally was a member almost from the start, but gave it up (several times) after it became apparent that while there were opportunities to network, the site didn’t readily support business – certainly as compared to other networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, all of which have delivered direct business, as well as business intelligence.

What are your experiences of Ecademy? Do let us know!

ecademy makes tens of thousands of email conversations available online – Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist.

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