The New Economy

It’s interesting that even though I hadn’t caught up reading all of the 20SB Meetup Attendees’ blogs before I got here, I knew from previous various networking events that bloggers are the type of people to never let me down.  That is, in getting some well anticipated pizza, being surprised at how much people knew about each other without having actually yet met in person, being fully mindful of recent news (here, here, here, and of course here), and the whole-drinking-while-doing-everything aspect; it’s weird to feel like you “belong” in a place you’ve never stepped foot; and instantaneously, no less. You’d think that one would have to work really hard to make these kinds of connections.  Maybe the work is being done for us now.

We live in the future, after all.

Proof of this is in the fact that in the early evening last night I basically wandered alone around downtown Chicago last night, really goddam fairly drunk the entire time, reassured that when the sun was good and gone that I’d have new friends by the time I passed out needed to get to bed. And I was totally right.  These people whose phone numbers I did not have, whom I had never met in person, whose voices I could not discern (except maybe that of Courtney‘s), welcomed me with open arms.

But how does that factor into my sub-headline?

During my last cigarette of last night, dshan and I talked about what you’d expect from people who are really into blogging: social media.  Twitter notified us all that Michael Jackson / Ed McMahon / Farrah Fawcett had passed on from this mortal coil before any of us saw any headlines on the television. Facebook status comments make it feel like you’re never too far away from friends’ and acquaintances’ clever quips.  But what’s interesting about all of this is it has led to a reputation based economy, whereby proper citations and attributions are really what count in this realm, and simple participation is how you get involved in the game.  (But how to translate that to actual currency?  That’s probably the next purple cow.  I am probably not the best source for figuring that out.)

But it occurs to me today, in brief retrospect and while putting away some web work I planned on doing during this trip, that the reputation-based economy is also as D put it last night: it’s based on trust. Which actually is directly proportional to how real-world finances work (and he should know).

So that means that linking to, replying or RT @, playing in the forums with, commenting on, and subscribing to another person’s net identity; this is how our generation generates trust.

We do live in the future.  And in this future, we are apparently participating in a currency exchange where character counts for a lot.

And what can you gain from participating in this economy?

Well, the opportunity to network with some really genuinely good people is a nice start, isn’t it?