Indeed. We had four ideas for apps. None are compatible with their ToS. Calling it an open API is a bit unfair. It is only open from a technological perspective, not from a legal perspective.
Plus, they have all sorts of bans on scraping, etc. They say users own their own data, but if their users use any tools to try to get their data, they block the tools....
It's too bad, because there are a lot of great things that could be built.
Right, and you have to be logged in through OAuth to get anything out of the API (As far as I can tell, please prove me wrong though), which really diminishes the value you can get out of the platform as a third party.
OAuth requires a user to be logged in, which is fine if that is the type of service you are running. If you want to search LinkedIn like you might twitter, you are out of luck if you want to do it through the API. And even if you do have a service that OAuth fits, the TOS is scary enough to avoid it.
Plus, they have all sorts of bans on scraping, etc. They say users own their own data, but if their users use any tools to try to get their data, they block the tools....
It's too bad, because there are a lot of great things that could be built.