"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care"
I know you are trying to address a classic problem that excellent networkers solve all the time (e.g. "You should talk to my friend Joe"). However, they are connecting people they already know. Even if you were able to figure out what businesses should connect, you will probably need who at those particular businesses should be connected. I don't think you can remove the human element from networking. LinkedIn succeeds because they are a powerful tool for managing a professional network and a lesser tool for reputation scoring (other startups are addressing that - check out http://anthillz.com). They do have a 'people you might want to add as a connection' but they pretty much remain in the background. LinkedIn is going to be hard to beat - they have the data and have gone beyond critical mass.
I know you are trying to address a classic problem that excellent networkers solve all the time (e.g. "You should talk to my friend Joe"). However, they are connecting people they already know. Even if you were able to figure out what businesses should connect, you will probably need who at those particular businesses should be connected. I don't think you can remove the human element from networking. LinkedIn succeeds because they are a powerful tool for managing a professional network and a lesser tool for reputation scoring (other startups are addressing that - check out http://anthillz.com). They do have a 'people you might want to add as a connection' but they pretty much remain in the background. LinkedIn is going to be hard to beat - they have the data and have gone beyond critical mass.