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Ron Ottavio says he has never worked for the Governor's Office, a profile of him on the Internet notwithstanding.

How the apparent mix-up happened is not clear.

Ottavio, a former Wachovia lobbyist, is the interim executive director of N.C. FREE. Earlier this week, a profile of him on the networking Web site LinkedIn said he had been working for the Office of the Governor for about a year. (See the document link below.)

Dome called Gov. Mike Easley's office to ask about it. Two spokeswomen said they hadn't heard of Ottavio and could find no record of him working there, either on staff or on contract.

Ottavio wrote in an e-mail to Dome Thursday that he had gotten a call from Easley's chief counsel Reuben Young.

"I am not sure how that got on LinkedIn," Ottavio wrote. "I have never worked for the Governor's Office — past or present. That has been corrected and did not realize I was even on LinkedIn."

Ottavio did not respond to further questions about the confusion.

Les Merritt is not the only state pol on LinkedIn.

In the last two weeks, the professional social networking site has started to take off among the crowd on Jones Street.

Aside from the state auditor, Rep. Grier Martin, Sen. Richard Stevens and candidate Ed Ridpath have signed up. Bill drafting director Gerry Cohen is leading the way among legislative staffers.

A number of members of the capitol press corps — including Mark Binker, Laura Leslie, and yours truly — are also on the site, but that's hardly surprising, given Dome's experience with journalists on social networking sites.

Since we last wrote, Merritt has also opened up his contacts.

In an interesting bipartisan moment, Stevens, a Republican, and Martin, a Democrat, are also "connections." That's not quite as heavy as being "friends" on Facebook, but it's a start.

The only question now is how long until Attorney General Roy Cooper demands to see proof that Martin, Stevens et al are over 18...

Les Merritt is LinkedIn.

The Republican state auditor has signed up for the professional social networking site, which has become a popular way of making business contacts in the Triangle and elsewhere.

Merritt, who already has a healthy 88 contacts, thanked them for joining his network in a post yesterday and asked for their thoughts:

Given that many of you are new to LinkedIn, I would love to hear your thoughts on the system. Specifically, I would like to know if there are others in your network with whom you think I should connect. If so, please let me know.

One respondent helpfully pointed out that Merritt had posted the message in the wrong place. He's also chosen to put his contact settings on private — which sort of defeats the purpose, no? But social networking's always a little awkard at first.

Just like in real life.

Roy Cooper's not the only one concerned about social networking.

We here at Dome wonder about the sites as well.

Your correspondent has signed up for a few sites because he's found them useful for reporting. (Because of cell phones, they're about the only way to contact someone under the age of 25.)

But we've received a few friend requests from political players. Now, we don't want anyone to log on and get the wrong idea that we're buddy-buddy with only certain people.

So here's our new policy: Everyone's in.

If you're a user of Friendster, MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, and you request to become friends with Ryan Teague Beckwith, I'll accept.