At Aloha Summit Peter Shankman was adamant that LinkedIn was a waste of time –- he really didn’t see the value in it as a social network. Others claimed LinkedIn was a valuable site that allowed you to connect to your business network–as opposed to simply throwing sheep at someone.

I wonder what Shankman et al will make of today’s news that LinkedIn has launched the first of its applications -- first announced at the end of last year.

The nine applications that you see live today on LinkedIn include productivity enhancing applications from Amazon, Box.net, Google, Huddle, Six Apart, SlideShare, Tripit, and WordPress as well a Company Buzz application developed by LinkedIn. Each of these applications will help you stay current and competitive as a professional in today’s rapidly changing business world.

That all sounds well and good, but applications on LinkedIn only make sense if you use LinkedIn like you would use Facebook–that is, an active network. For myself, I use LinkedIn more passively –- I find myself only on LinkedIn when I need to reach out to someone that is only available through my network. I never use LinkedIn on a daily basis.

LinkedIn is desperate to reinvent itself as a social network for grown-ups. The question is, do you use LinkedIn as a social network or is it merely a place to keep an up-to-date resume?