The Whuffie Factor 1

Holly Swenson
November 14, 2010


The Whuffie Factor; Social Networking, Currency, and Reputation


The Whuffie Factor? What's that? Well, Whuffie came from Cory Doctorow's science fiction novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. The term Whuffie now has become a synonym for social capital. In the novel, Usual incentives have disappeared and Whuffie has then replaced money, which then provided motivation for people to do useful creative things. It states in the reading that a person's Whuffie is a general measurement of his or her overall reputation and its gained or losses according to that persons actions.  As it states in the reading "Whuffie is the residual outcome-the currency-of your reputation. You lose or gain it based on positive or negative actions, your contributions to the community, and what people think of you"


I thought this was very interesting. Unlike social capital Whuffie tracks your online social networking and other things you may do online. Really cool. Also in the reading it stated that anyone can see your Whuffie factor score for free. Good or bad? I guess its good and bad for many different reasons. I decided to do some outside research and found this quote that made me understand a little bit more what this is all about. "Whuffie recaptured the true essence of money: in the old days, if you were broke but respected, you wouldn't starve; contrariwise, if you were rich and hated, no sum could buy you security and peace. By measuring the thing that money really represented — your personal capital with your friends and neighbors — you more accurately gauged your success". Wikipedia.com. 


So what happens if you have a score of 0 or a really high score, what are the benefits or are there any? Well it turns out if a person has a score of 0 that person is as capable of giving and taking away Whuffie as someone with a score if 1,000,000. But I also found out that the person with 1,000,000 point score would be invited to parties and elite events, whereas the person with 0 would probably not even be allowed into reputable clubs or restaurants. When reading about this I really was surprised to find out people with higher scores actually get something for it, interesting. This also gives people incentive to higher their score also. 


So what are the advantages and disadvantages to Whuffie? Well in my research its like all economic systems. It might tend to favor popular speech at the dispense of public discourse. And it also talks about the concept of weighted Whuffie and how it helps make better decisions on a person-by-person basis, and then making it more flexible than rating someone by their bank account. Also, the Whuffie system keeps a public history of how each person's Whuffie was earned. Really interesting. 


So basically they want us to be online 24/7 now! It comes down to networking, getting your name out there talking to many different kinds of people and just realizing the possibilities that networking really has. The more connections and collaborations you have out there it will benefit you greatly and the better off you will be in the end. This is very important to remember. 


I enjoyed reading and learning about the Whuffie factor. I think its really cool how they created an entire separate economy and currency for social networks. This will definitely be beneficial for many companies in the future and also just for anyone who wants to find out what their score is or raising your score to get some of the benefits the top elite group gets.