While i would really like Linked in dead I would rather like to replace it with something more useful.<p>I think another good alternative would be to introduce money as a way to connect people.
To connect people just pay them to accept you but only allow the flow of money one way. If you know the person you you really wouldn't mind the inconvenience of paying some lunch money and getting it back IRL or via a different service later. Physical connections could be made for free when people are in same location and make phones mate with each other or something.
For recruiting this could work as well.
If i am really that interested to a recruiter he wouldn't mind paying the equivalent the time it takes to look at it seriously for me to look at his offer. And if his offer was good and a real job hey i might pay him back. If it was just a grab for my CV then tough luck you lost your investment.
The website hoster / owner would take his cut from all these transactions.<p>Additionally it would be nice if you could grant selective information rights to individuals, say you could share your CV with someone while not sharing it with the world. And you could set this up per user. Essentially storing an PKI encrypted copy of a CV / profile for another user that you could revoke.