Comments on: New Media 3.0: Social Currency as a Real Currency

By: Whitney

Whitney — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 15:42:46 +0000

Sometimes I think we play a little inside baseball with concepts like whuffie that make it hard for normal human beings to understand us. It’s not just jargon, it’s about trying to make meaning and communication clear.
And I think it is honestly hard to do that when we are dealing with something new. We’re on the frontier, hacking away with our machetes and trying to find the new pathways while also wrapping our minds around all the new discoveries and the potential lying at our fingertips.
I am really enjoying this conversation, the exchange of the different paradigms, as we all figure out what we want the future to look like. And I am more than doubly grateful to be ‘mates with you guys, because this type of conversation is much more worth while than who is on the latest reality show, that’s for sure.

By: financialaidpodcast

financialaidpodcast — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 03:38:24 +0000

So you know how I was puzzled about how you could objectively create a social currency?

Someone else had the same idea…

http://searchengineland.com/070209-164512.php

By: financialaidpodcast

financialaidpodcast — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 14:51:25 +0000

Whitney: I don’t think the establishment of a currency by itself devalues trust or relationships, so much as how the person being trusted manages their trust-based transactions. For example, there was quite an uproar about Pay Per Post in the blogosphere, but the greater issue wasn’t being paid for posting, but rather not disclosing it. In that case, Pay Per Post had chosen to create a currency exchange of reputation for the US dollar.

Where I think the problem on the blogger side was is that without an objective native currency, people were scrambling for post opportunities that were vastly undervalued. Without a way to objectively measure your blog’s reach and engagement, you don’t know whether you’re getting jacked in any kind of deal. Should a Z-list blog receive $10 per post? Should an A-list blog receive $10 per post? Measuring that requires a currency on which to exchange, rather than “gut feeling”.

By: financialaidpodcast

financialaidpodcast — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 14:00:48 +0000

CC: I don’t believe relationships and barter will ever go away, even under a “new whuffie economy”. Even today, in the United States, we still have an extensive network of people who are executing barter and trade. Barter, trade, and relationships aren’t going away, and they can enhance a transaction. Having a currency and the intermediation of trust, however, gives a relatively efficient baseline from which people who don’t have relationships can do business.

For example, because there’s an intermediation of trust, you can walk into nearly any restaurant, sit down, eat, pay, and leave. However, if you have a personal relationship with the owner or a particular waiter/waitress, you will likely have a more fulfilling experience. The intermediation of trust just provides an efficiency that having to set up personal relationships does not.

By: Whitney

Whitney — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 13:01:26 +0000

I think you’re onto something about evolving a currency applicable to new media. What is a mention in Scoble’s Blog, for example, or in Tech Crunch worth to someone? Moreover, do we create trust or diminish trust if the mentionee then pays for the uptick in business, and how do you account for that?
There’s been a certain “race to the bottom” where things that once had tremendous value, like a set of encyclopedia brittancia, at $2,500+ a set, is now free. Encarta came along, and people got “good enough” for free, and now we even have wikipedia. Maybe not as excellent as the original, not as well written or researched, but good enough.
So are we also dealing with a time where good enough prevails?
I wrote a post about “Revenge of the Nice Guys” on the Parent’s Eye View blog- in many ways, we’re back to the ’50’s where getting things done online depends on trust and reputation n the same way getting business done used to require knowing the Banker and being in his continued good favor, or just forget about the loan. Being able to just “sign” for things is not just a “Yeah yeah” it is today when we sign for things from UPS, but it carried a lot of weight and import.

By: C.C. Chapman

C.C. Chapman — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 11:55:19 +0000

It’s way to early to totally consume this, but the concept of whuffie and what it is all around has stuck with me ever since Julien introduced me to it last year.

I’ve always believed that you get back more then you give. That I firmly believe in today’s world of new media it should be no different.

But, personally I don’t want to think about it as currency. It’s in my DNA and thus I can’t do anything about it. Just the way I am.