XING is fully available 99.85% of the time.

It happens pretty rarely, but sometimes our platform is affected too by operational faults and malfunctions. Of course we try to keep these hiccups to an absolute minimum. Our content is stored and supplied from two different data processing centers for instance, which means that our users can be re-routed from one to the other dependently on demand and performance.  All systems have a failover cluster operation guaranteeing high performance and stability, as well as having sufficient reserves to cope better with peak loads. Making sure our platform is both available and fast is our number one priority.

Sometimes though, like last Wednesday’s morning for instance, we do encounter unforeseen problems. There isn’t an IT system anywhere that is 100% fault-tolerant – there will always be systematic single points of failure that will send part or all of the entire system crashing with them. In this latest case a defect network component corrupted a mechanism, which was specifically required to safeguard against failure (Spanning Tree Protocol). We will be analyzing and intercepting this error to make sure it doesn’t crop up again.

A look at the figures for the past twelve months shows that we meet our high targets, with an average uptime ratio of 99.95%. In other words, this means that XING can’t have been offline for more than four hours and 2 minutes over the entire year. Or to put it yet another way: This is equivalent to around 44 seconds a day. Crashes affecting just certain parts of the platform have also been included in this statistic.

Here are the availability figures for the past twelve months:

To form a meaningful graph from these figures the vertical axis needs to be scaled up dramatically in order to see any fluctuations at all:

Chart: XING availability during the last twelve months.

Despite this record, every minute of downtime is a blow to us – as we know how important it is that our members can send messages, make contacts and network at any time. That’s why we’ll keep doing everything in our power to maximize stability and availability of our platform.

Anyone logging in to our homepage and switching between login fields using the tab button will find it easier from now on to get networking even faster – as we’ve optimized this.

Our OpenSocial application Ask XING has also had a slight algorithmic makeover this week – meaning that it can now process certain special characters more effectively. What’s more, members can now formulate paragraphs into their questions or answers. Our suggested matches for relevant discussions are now based on your current industry and the keywords you have entered under “Haves”.

We will of course keep on releasing both minor and major developments on our platform over the coming weeks – and will be sure to let you know about them here in the Release Flash. You’re also very welcome to discuss these new releases in the XING Group.

I’m very excited about this participation and the future cooperation with Burda. It’s a match made in heaven: Burda Media as the leading European media group and XING as the leading European business network. In recent years, the group has invested in the Internet continually, and is active online and offline with its own products and publications (CHIP, Focus, etc.) as well as participations (Tomorrow Focus, Glam Media, Zooplus). In doing so, Burda has proven itself to be a long-term and internationally oriented investor.

We still have a lot of plans on continuing to develop and grow XING. In this process, it’s great to have a strong partner such as Burda to support us.

Susanne Reppin (left) and Dr. Johannes Mainusch on the wjax stage.

Just how agile is XING? How agilely do we feel? At this year’s w-jax 09, Johannes Mainusch and myself talked openly about the XING culture, what kind of people we are, what we’re aiming for and what’s important to us. XING releases weekly updates on the platform, innovating therefore all the time during ongoing operation of the platform. We don’t want to have to put a halt to anything, and not when it comes to agile software development either.

XING already develops projects effectively using Scrum (see also Scrum @ XING – a case study). Alongside this, we’ve been working for nine months to put Kanban in place for one our maintenance teams – as both a methodology and philosophy. The initial idea for this came from Ralf Wirdemann, who’s an agile coach. Selecting Kanban fits in with our belief in agile and lean software development and to drive this forward in the future.

People took a great interest in our speech (here’s the slideshare and our PDF with notes, both in German). We explained why Scrum is so well-suited to our project work, as it protects the team from disruptions during the sprints – but that precisely this protection is contra-productive when applied to a team operating in close interplay with live operation of the platform. Kanban is considerably better suited to integrating disruptions – which bugs are after all – in an ad hoc way, and is therefore ideal for a maintenance team.

One of the major success factors here is of course the team itself. All team members were already experienced in agile development and wanted to learn more in a professional context. After about six weeks we were all surprised at how much more effectively and fast we could now go about our daily work.

Please note: The full talk held at the w-jax 2009 in Munich will be published in the next few weeks by w-jax.

The reason: A module we have developed ourselves that serves to load files in a browser once the page itself has already been loaded. This is useful because it means we don’t have to send all functionalities and graphics that might possibly be used through the network at once for every page accessed, which saves you a lot of time waiting for pages to load. If you then decide to use a feature or function that isn’t yet loaded – such as the photo upload in your profile, this small additional feature can then be loaded separately.

The browser feature that our module accesses posed a security loopholes in earlier versions of Internet Explorer. You can read more about this here: Microsoft Internet Explorer onreadystatechange Memory Corruption Vulnerability.

The good news is that Microsoft solved this problem in their own browser some time ago. (It might be worth you visiting windowsupdate.com to make sure your operating system and Internet Explorer are both fully up-to-date.)

If you use an outdated version of the virus scanner F-Secure though, which has not received an update since the removal of the security loophole in Internet Explorer, it will show you a false alarm if you use the Microsoft browser.

Björn Kaiser, one of our software experts, had this to say about the matter: “We did everything in our power here to make sure we avoided any major difficulties here. Even though it wasn’t a security breach at all, we still didn’t want to unsettle our users with nonsensical warning messages from a virus scanner that wasn’t updated. He spent three days trying to pinpoint the exact source of the problem, combing through 60,000 lines of Javascript code to locate the one line that triggers the warning message. One harmless line, lots of work! Thanks to my colleague Ingo as well for all the great debugging he did …”

Doing without onreadystatechange was out of the question. This would have meant that certain modules wouldn’t work at all anymore. The solution our developers came up with was relatively simple in comparison: Thanks to

var handler = ["onr", "eadystatec", "hange"].join(”");

the virus scanner no longer recognizes the supposedly bad “onreadystatechange“. The string function join enables the components to be brought together and implemented though – without triggering the false alarm.

There was of course no danger to your data or computer at any point in time here. We contacted the manufacturer too to make sure that this was in fact a case of a false alarm.

Having said this you should make it a top priority, in your own interests, to update your virus scanner to the latest standards. At the same time we’ll continue to do everything to ensure the most secure networking possible on our platform, without any unnecessary warning messages.

All you have to do is visit our sweepstake page and answer the question “What is a XING application?” to be in with a chance of winning one of 72 fantastic prizes.

We’re giving away a MacBook Air, a Jura automatic coffee machine, BlackBerry smartphones, iPod shuffles and 12-month XING Premium Memberships.

And there’s more – If you upgrade to Premium now you’ll also cash in on our special birthday offer:

Become a Premium Member by November 24 and you will receive one additional month of Premium Membership for free – whichever upgrade package you choose!

Check out the offer now

We’re aware that XING is not completely free of harassment, inappropriate remarks, spam, and other violations described above. Although we’re convinced that only a small portion of our members are confronted with these types of contact, we take such situations very seriously, and encourage anyone affected to inform us immediately.

Reporting objectionable contents or activities has nothing to do with being a “tattletale” or “stoolpigeon”, contrary to what is sometimes discussed in forums. In fact, the whole talk of “stoolies” or similar is a rather striking example of inverting the whole victim-perpetrator relationship, implying that by reporting offensive behavior, a victim becomes a perpetrator. The true perp is the person spamming or offending others, of course.

Respect and trust are the basis for everything else

Mutual respect and trust are the basis for every functioning society, and by proxy, every network. A person breaching netiquette by posting inappropriate content also destroys this trust, acts in a disrespectful manner, and lowers the value of a network for all members in it. We cannot, nor do we want to tolerate this type of behavior on our platform.

For this reason, we’re working on a solution so that members who are harassed or otherwise offended by content can let us know quickly and easily. In fact, in recent months we’ve made it easier to report inappropriate content to XING, for example, in contact requests and in the “Ask XING” app. The aim is clear: a trustworthy, safe, and respectful networking atmosphere now and in the future.

As a Premium Member, you can display references to other members in your profile and receive recommendations from any XING member, whether Premium or basic. So how is the best way to make the most of your references on XING?

Utilizing the right references for maximum benefit

Even more so that with contacts, quality over quantity and informative value over empty phrases is crucial when managing your references. Letters of recommendation are not designed to be collected, but rather act as verification of your skills and strengths in your profile. You should take a moment here to think about who would fulfill this role best and how you would most like to be portrayed.

One rule of thumb is: Clients are the most “powerful” references for you, followed by your managers or superiors and possibly also external project partners. References from “normal” colleagues are certainly a nice gesture, but may well carry less weight for a recruiter. There are of course exceptions to this rule, e.g. a former colleague with a particularly good reputation in the industry, or a reference that relates to a particular past project you wish to highlight.

When asking for a reference, send a private message too and outline what you’d most like to attain with the reference. Maybe you’d like to promote your software expertise or a particularly ingenious idea you had? Ask the referee to mention this! The referee doesn’t have to stick to this, but more often than not they are grateful for this input and guidance.

And the other way around, when you give a reference, you should at least write a short, succinct text. Place yourself in the shoes of a potential client or employer and then write what you most like to read about yourself.

You can activate or delete all references you receive as you wish. Think here about how your profile works as a whole and make sure you end up with a limited and fine selection of personal recommendations.

More than 65,000 XING members network in the Xpert Ambassador Group called The Selling Group, sharing insights and experiences about all the issues and different aspects of this sector. This usually happens online, but now some real-life offline networking has taken place too: The group’s first XING Live Event took place on October 28 in the Porsche Centre at the Olympia Park in Munich, organized by Xpert Ambassador Stephan Heinrich. And there will certainly be more events to follow in the future.

Many members attending had travelled from far and wide for a chance to network in person with other sales experts. After a short introductory speech, the rest of the evening was left open for guests to mingle amongst themselves and network away to their heart’s content. You can click here to view photos by photographer Renate Blaes, and here to view a film of the event produced by the ad agency Fast-Emotions. We would like to express our gratitude to the organizers, participants and all those who made the event possible.

If you work in Sales and would like to connect and share insights with other experts, both online and offline, we recommend joining The Selling Group!

Turn your XING contacts into your references

As a XING Premium Member, you can now ask your contacts to act as references for you, and display these references in a separate area on your profile (you’ll find it when you click on the link under “References and Awards”. So go ahead and ask your contacts to tell your network what they think of you. A satisfied client or boss can make a big difference on how others see you.

References can be given with or without an explanatory letter, depending on the wishes of the referee.  Of course, you can always hide references you receive, or even delete them. Furthermore, all members who use this new feature can also act as a reference for their contacts, and to view references of other people.

“Word of mouth marketing” makes you and your “brand” more legit

The advantage of getting XING References is that anyone who visits your profile can see who recommended you. Your network is the best evidence that you’re a capable, trustworthy individual, with services or products to match.