We are entering a new world where social capital is becoming a valuable asset alongside actual currency capital. Did you know that there are sites that are trading people's social media network reach in "shares" like on the stock exchange? Being able to build an engaged network of people through the social media technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and others is now not just a cool way to connect with old classmates and friends you rarely see in person. The big boys of industry have entered the game and have begun to start working out ways to monetize a persons social media influence. We are talking about the dawning of a completely new economy based solely on social reach, relational quantity and the ability to generate attention grabbing content that will be passed on through other people's networks. You have become a commodity.....

Klout.com is a site that if you have a facebook, Twitter or Linkedin account, will give you a ranking of how your social capital is doing and how you are doing in your ability to use these tools to influence others. By scoring a persons interactions on these various sites, Klout generates a number value and a label for the type of person you are within the social media universe. When I first logged on there was a glitch and none of my (sometimes obsessive) Facebook activity showed up so I was given a score of 15 and called an Observer. I was mortified, given that I felt rather confident that I would rank at least in the middle range, since I am rather active in most social media networks. So I had to disconnect my Facebook account and then reconnect it. (which I supposemis why the Klout logo has the word "beta" above it) and when I did, things made much more sense. I was ranked a 46. I have gone up 1 point this week, which is strange because I have been rather busy and been neglecting my Internet time, but I'll take a point if they want to give me one!

I mentioned earlier that their are much more complex systems out there that are beginning to do some wild and crazy things with the idea of social network capital, but I would recommend Klout.com as a good starting point if you want to see where you are at right now. You may be surprised. I told someone that I saw that they were ranked high and they had no idea.... And others thought they should have been close to 100 and were crushed (FYI the Dalai Lama is not close to 100). So if you want to catch a glimpse of what is emerging and what I believe is a kind of social economy that Colombia professor Douglas Rushkoff predicted five years ago on the site BigIdeas, where he said that the future would see the creation of a new economy based on social value rather than economic value. His ideas were more "real-world" oriented rather than Internet based, but it's been five years and at the speed that things are traveling that is a very long time and now the lines between real/virtual world are fading away into one large mashup of tech and life and networks and communication and information...... You get my point.... Go to Klout.com and begin to see how well you are living in this in the emerging digital world. (you can buy and sell your social shares later....)

If you are anything like me then you are tired of all the bad news. In fact it has been proven that our emotional capaticity for sadness has been way over saturated by all the bad news we are encountered wihr daily from around the world. I am not saying I lack compassion for an earthquake in Asia but I am struggling to deal with the emotions of just the sadness that crops up in my own communiy of friends, let alone my own country.

Well this website Daily Good has come to the rescue to add a little bit of good to your day. It's simple, everyday, they post a news sorry or article that is positive and focused on bringing out the good in life to balance out the warped perspective that all is bad. Check it out today and find some good every day!