LinkedIn has undergone some major changes recently, and one of the most useful ones is the addition of the capability to have “discussions” with members of the different LinkedIn Groups you may have joined.
For me, it has turned LinkedIn from an enormous collection of names to a collection of people. LinkedIn now enables you to interact more directly with people with whom you have something in common (or, presumably, you wouldn’t belong to the same Group), but who are not part of your first level connections.
I’ve joined a number of LinkedIn Groups associated with my past – my college, for example, and groups associated with my profession (”Career Professionals”) and my previous jobs (”digital alumni” for people, like me, who worked for Digital Equipment Corporation in the past).

