Imploitation
ThoughtStorms Wiki
In Bard and Soderqvist's NetoCracy analysis we are moving into an economic system where network connections are type of wealth.
Network connections bring you obscure knowledge, and you live by processing that knowledge.
There are two ways of doing this : NetocraticExploitation and Imploitation. Exploitation seeks to turn knowledge into capital. Typically you package and sell it, or use it to add value to a product, or get a competative advantage for some activity which helps you gain capital.
Imploitation is the attempt to turn it into more netocratic wealth, to use it to increase or improve your network of connections. So, for example, you can pass the knowledge on to another exclusive network of good connections in order to raise your profile and improve your reputation with them. Or you may make a product or package using the knowledge which is aimed at winning the attention and support of members of the network.
When faced with privileged information, NetocraticExploitation is the typical reaction of the capitalist : to attempt to turn that information into money. The Bard and Soderqvist example is to turn knowledge of an obscure, pleasant beach into cash by building a hotel and selling trips there.
However, as the Netocratic economy becomes more prominent, connections themselves become the more desirable form of wealth. Thus knowledge of the beach can be imploited, ie turned into further network wealth by using it to make or cement connections. Instead of trying to popularize the beach, you can invite some select friends or people you'd like to be friends. Careful imploitation of information strengthens your network. (Note here that NetoCracy differs from some similar theories, in that it presumes that many exclusive networks will be concerned with preserving the secrecy of information and keeping people out.)
Imploitation Links
- ShadowElite
- TheAttentionEconomy,
- PowerLaws
- SocialCapitalAndIncome
- GoogleJuice
- Perhaps BrandedBrands are a sort of imploitation, one brand trading exposure with another?
- RossMayfieldsThreeScalesOfNetwork,
- ServiceStrategy,
- TheCourtOfKingBlog
Perspectives
WillDavies :
What occurs in the context of blogging is the flattening of informational advantage in the pursuit of reputation. ClayShirky, for instance, gives away excellent ideas, and thereby destroys their market value, and he does so in the pursuit of reputation. I don't know, but I assume he also keeps some private in order to pay the rent.
I can’t tell whether to feel happy or sad that I’ve sat through this movie so many times that I can mouth the words, but seeing the idea of web rings and that old “Now you can have direct access to world leaders — through e-mail!” meme run through the “Now with new Blogs!” treatment does suggest we’ve entered the phase where first-mover advantages are being sold to Nth movers, where N is large. Next stop, exposes airing the disappointment of people who started a blog and worked on it all week and still didn’t become famous.* http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2004/10/06/blogexplosionandinsidersclubbrothersin_cluelessness.php
This is striking :
It was amazing to me that a mid-level CIA officer who was the Iraqi bureau chief in the ‘90s had in his cell phone the numbers of multi-billionaires. And he would call them on their personal cell phones and they’d pick up and say, “Oh, hey, Bob. Sure. Goin’ out with the fam on the boat tomorrow. Come on out. Oh, you have a friend? Bring him. Sure. Bring him along. No problem.” I watched him at length with these people and I realized, one, it wasn’t at all what I thought it was. That what Bob was primarily was a nexus for information. The reason these men, these well-known men, these super-powerful famous people, were interested in spending time with him was because he was of use to them. Because he knew things that they didn’t know and wanted to know. These are serious people, and what they do when they get together is they exchange information.