My twitter account is nearing its second anniversary and I watch trends there like a cat at a mouse hole. The quantity and quality of misperceptions is truly impressive; we Americans, standing in the slowly settling cloud of debris left by the implosion of Wall Street's latest bubble have begun to reform our expectations and our institutions.
I fully expect to see a biker gang passing me on the road this summer, 49cc scooter engines purring, and organic hemp jackets with the gang's name, Post Consumer Waste, flapping in the breeze.
All hyperbole aside, news reporting and opinion is undergoing just exactly that sort of puckish deceleration, and reputation economics is at the core of the transformation.
Reputation economics, a phrase coined by cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling and first found in his 1998 post collapse political thriller Distraction, can be briefly described as a system that describes one's repuation outside of the hard, monetary and administrative attributes such as our credit score or driving record.
We once lived in villages where everyone knew at least a bit about every person they came across. Our society, mobilized by fossil fuels, lost that, but we evolve slowly. As soon as the internet became available we began to congregate in villages again, albeit virtual ones better describes as communities of practice, where affinty mattered far more than geographic proximity. Peak oil coming to fruition will complete this circle, turning our mobility back to what we had in the early 20th century. Those who've successfully engaged online will find their transition to this poorer, less mobile lifestyle greatly facilitated by their online contacts.
What is your online reputation? I long ago stopped selling things on Ebay but I have some sort of feedback score - a hard, transactional number that ties back into consumer society. I have some DailyKos mojo, as evidenced by my daily supply of donuts. I'm recognized on a few other sites, my work rapidly rises to the top when renewable ammonia is the search term, and I think I'm starting to get similar traction in social media. I have a certain number and sort of Twitter friends and followers. My expanding Facebook circle puzzles me a bit, but I do it because Spedwybabs does it that way - we shall see where this ends.
Why do people interact online? They go on for play and entertainment, they go on for administrative tasks, and they go on to consume and produce information. And for those information producers, those citizen journalists who work not for a paycheck, but to scratch some personal itch, the payoff is in the completed product, certainly, but very often they also look to enhance their reputation.
Reputation enhancement - just vanity, right? Not even close. Eight months ago I arrived at Netroots Nation 2009, an energy and big ag policy wonk making my first venture to our annual carnival. I came away as one of the founders of the Blogger's Union, which began as a prank on right wing coughnews*cough* figures, but rapidly evolved into the bones of a Progressive machine. We've got people, procedures, a variety of information systems, strategists, training, and a growing set of relationships in the Progressive blogosphere, in the Twitterverse, among the Democratic candidates, and we're just starting to see some response from forward looking incumbents.
This expanding repuation, this social coin, has been invested rather than spent. An incumbent will take the time to talk to us? Great! And we'll invite the bloggers from the Congressman's state to join the call - a level of access few individual bloggers can command. Oh, and we'll bring our podcaster associates along for the ride.
The Conressman gets a venue with a collection of sharp, but friendly interviewers, and they'll keep stepping up for him long after the particulars of the first interview are forgotten. The bloggers get treasure - direct access, their very own news instead of second hand reporting from mainstream media outlets of questionable accuracy and integrity. I might get a blog out of it myself, but the big win is some staffers who know my name and some bloggers who are eager to see what door we can open next when we move as a group.
Ebay and Craigslist have starved the local newspaper of its classifieds revenue. Radio has been consolidated and radicalized by the likes of Clear Channel. Television? Oh, don't get me started. They'll fan the Tea Party embers until it bursts into civil war and they'll keep at it until the destruction becomes bad for their ratings. Corporations are often sociopathic and this definitely applies to corporate media.
Being a conglomeration of humans (who will form corporations for the privacy and personal liability protection they afford) a social media based news, policy, and opinion operation will look a bit like a corporate news conglomerate. Like the open source software that wiped out the Unix workstation vendors in the 1990s and powered the growth of the internet we know today this operation will run on a financial cost recovery basis, but with intense personal and team reputation economics in play.
Unlike the current corporate media environment, in which the shallow, parasitic sociopath can rise as a 'leader', the leaders in a social media driven news operation will constantly reinvest their social capital, expanding rather than eliminating the humans involved. Unlike the quarterly return focus of the corporation, the social media operation has planners who consistently plant seeds that won't fully flower until after old age has taken them out of the game.
What does a traditional communications director, seeing their candidate accosted by a small orange cat asking detailed policy questions, serving effectively as a proxy on tough opposition issues, and then demanding a personal audience do? Laughing it off might very well yield a feline rendition of the Persian emissary's famous pronouncement: "Dogs OR Cats? Choose your next words carefully, human ..." Retiring beneath one's desk with the entire office supply of catnip is one approach, but that's probably not the right one.
Although the modes are far different than those of a community of practice chieftain, the candidate and the campaign staff should be moving through the blogosphere, through the twitterverse, through any space where humans form and store their collective opinions, making contacts and gathering resources as they go.
Like the captain of a European caravel sighting land on the far side of the Indian ocean, there are wonders to be seen and rich exchange is possible, but an innocent misstep can leave one stranded on the beach, studying the flaming hulk had been a potentially winning campaign. A local guide is the best defense against such outcomes ... one with a name that's been bought and paid for with that local social coin.