"Graduation Authentication Links" Proposal for Linkedin/Facebook/MySpace

Here is my proposal for Linkedin/Facebook/Myspace to gain market share with a new business/product..."INFRASTRUCTURE for GRADUATION AUTHENTICATION LINKS" THE NEED: With social networks (Linkedin, Facebook, MySpace) accelerating in popularity and utility in the business world, legitimate alumni of prestigious universities need authentication and bogus alumni need to be exposed. We only want legitimate alumni to be able to claim credit for graduating our alma mater. Liars hurt our reputation. THE SOLUTION FOR THE COLLEGE: There is a crucial role college alumni associations can inexpensively play to address this growing problem. Add an "Graduation Authentication Link" page to the their alumni websites. It could work like Linkedin.com's "View My Profile" buttons. <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/optevi" ><img src="http://www.linkedin.com/img/webpromo/btn_viewmy_160x33.gif" width="160" height="33" border="0" alt="View Dan Abrams's profile on LinkedIn"></a> (once you're signed in you can see all the graphic "badges" they make available) http://www.linkedin.com/profile?promoteProfile=&trk=mypro_badges THE SOCIAL NETWORK'S ROLE: 1) Provide the technical infrastructure to enable this feature. 2) Sell this service/software as a turnkey solution for colleges to customize/tailor with their own logos & graphics. Pricing as low as $2k plus a $1 per user/per year would be extremely attractive to colleges. There could be discounts/economies of scale for mega-large universities (like the University of Michigan) and still bring in thousands of dollars per college multiplied by over a thousand colleges and you get millions in revenue for negligible cost. 3) This also provides a seamless transition/influx of new customers to their own service. It's like Microsoft's Windows encouraging MSOFFICE. THE SYSTEM'S ACTION PLAN: 1) One the system is in place, Active/"Dues-Paying" members of the a given college's alumni association are sent an email inviting them to participate in the "Graduation Authentication" system. Interested members "opt in". 2) That list of opt-ins is put into a simple database (provided by social network vendor) and random passwords are generated for those people. Emails with password-links are sent to those opt-in members inviting them to update their "Graduation Authentication Page" with very limited & optional information (upload a photo, city of residence and maybe even links to that member's pages on other social networks, liked Linkedin/Facebook/Myspace) and of course they can change their password. I strongly urge that these pages NOT include contact information (for fear of nefarious marketers scraping data for undesirable purposes). 3) Those members who have now signed up get to include personalized "Graduation Authentication Links" on their own social network pages and job application emails. 4) People hiring (maybe especially those who are not alumni) can click on those links to see the limited, public pages of members and thus authenticate the graduation of the applicant (who is a legitimate, dues-paying member of the their alumni association). THE BENEFITS FOR COLLEGES: A) Encourages alumni to join (and pay dues to) their alumni association in order to get this benefit. B) Continuously drives traffic to alumni association websites (from people clicking on the G.A.L.s to check on the validity of degree claims). C) Most importantly, you are now providing a valuable service to give credit only where credit is due. Valid graduates get proof and liars are discouraged from claiming those college using this service as the institution from where they got their degree. D) Since some version of this kind of service is inevitable, why not be the first to implement it and get credit for being a pioneer? (to the best of my knowledge I came up with this idea but it's entirely possible there is/was/will be "simultaneous creation" or maybe you've already been thinking about this for years). NOTE - I pitched this to the president of the University of Michigan Alumni Association over a year ago (early 2008). ALSO NOTE (OTHER POSSIBLE MARKETS) - This service could similarly be sold to professional certification organizations, unions, trade associations or any group with selective membership where authentication would be appreciated.