As the internet has increasingly become more social, the value of individual reputations has risen, and a new currency based on reputation has been created. This means that not only are companies tracking what an individual is tweeting and what sites they spend the most time on, but they're using this knowledge to predict the consumer's future behavior. And a world in which Target knows that a woman is pregnant before she does, or where a person gets a job (or loses one) based on his high school hijinx is a scary one indeed. Joshua Klein's Reputation Economics asks these crucial questions: But what if there were a way to harness the power of these new technologies to empower the individual and entrepreneur? What if it turned out that David was actually better suited to navigate this new realm of reputation than Goliath? And what if he ushered in a new age of business in which reputation, rather than money, was the strongest currency of all? This is all currently happening online already. Welcome to the age of Reputation Economics: -Where Avis is currently discounting car rentals based on Twitter followers -Where Carnival Cruise Lines are offering free upgrades based on a Klout score -Where Amazon and Microsoft are a short way away from dynamically pricing their goods based on a consumer's reach and reputation online -Where Klout scores are being used to vet job applications The value of individual reputation is already radically changing the way business is done. “ Reputation Economics peels back the onion to reveal the dystopia of modern commerce and the trends, tools, and technologies that allow individuals to take more control of their futures and render business as usual obsolete. I recommend this fascinating and instructive book to both the captains of industry and the folks who'd like to see them sink.” ― Matt Stinchcomb, VP, Values & Impact, Etsy “Josh Klein understands what is about to replace money. The extent to which you understand it, too, will likely determine whether you thrive in the landscape before us.” ― Douglas Rushkoff, author of Life Inc and Present Shock “The global economy is in upheaval, and Klein details the technologies behind much of this change and the growing emphasis on relationships. He does all this with fresh and cogent insight.” ― Don Tapscott, bestselling author of 14 books, including Radical Openness Joshua Klein is an internationally known technology expert who studies systems, from computer networks and institutions to consumer hardware. He is the author of Reputation Economics . His recent projects have included an acclaimed new television series on the history of innovation on the National Geographic Channel, called The Link, one of the most watched TED videos of all time (about a vending machine that trains crows to exchange found coins for peanuts) and the development of a cell phone application to create a virtuous cycle of education and employment in South Africa. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, O Magazine, and The Harvard Business Review. He has made appearances on MSNBC, NPR, and has spoken at conferences from TED to Davos, and presented in front of organizations ranging from the State Department to the Young Presidents Organization Global Leadership Congress, to Microsoft to Amazon. To find out more about Josh, his books, or his upcoming projects, you can visit his websites. He lives in New York City. Reputation Economics Why Who You Know is Worth More Than What You Have By Joshua Klein Palgrave Macmillan Copyright © 2013 Joshua Klein, All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-137-27862-3 Contents Acknowledgments, 1 What Is Your Mother Worth?, 2 A Short History of Money, 3 The Fractionation of Currency, 4 The Rise of the Individual, 5 The Panopticon and the Runaway Culture Ecology, 6 Flies and Ointments, 7 The Abundance Economy, 8 Code Is Culture, 9 Emerging Models ... and Markets, 10 A Potential Triumph of the Commons, Notes, Index, CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS YOUR MOTHER WORTH? # OPENING SHOTS ON THE FINANCIAL OLIGARCHY During the 9/11 attacks in New York City, federal investigators were certain that the terrorists had used the black market and a network of friend-of-a-friend connections to covertly move the funds they needed. In truth, they used an FDIC-insured bank based in Florida. At the same time, foreign workers the world over whose earnings could spell literal life or death for their families back home transferred their funds using the same underground network the FBI was worried about the terrorists using — because they felt it was safer. As part of the exact same trend, someone is tweeting more than 45 times a day right now so they can get upgraded to an executive suite the next time they book a room at a hotel. Someone else is spending hours and hours after work painstakingly answering other people's technical questions, for free, without ever having a use for the solutions themselves.