Celebrity and the Rise of a Reputation Economy

With multiplying numbers of sub-cultures, there are more and more opportunities for celebrity, but for smaller and smaller groups of people.


Folksonomies: celebrity reputation

Celebrity Economy

This century's last great trend was noted by acute observers in 1996, yet most people failed to appreciate it. While business gurus were proclaiming the new dominance of creativity and innovation over mere production, the growing ease with which information was transmitted and reproduced made it harder for creators to profit from their creations. Nowadays, if you develop a marvelous piece of software, everyone will have downloaded a free copy from the Net the next day. If you record a magnificent concert, bootleg CD's will be sold in Shanghai next week. If you produce a wonderful film, high-quality videos will be available in Mexico City next month.

How, then, could creativity be made to pay? The answer was already becoming apparent a century ago: creations must make money indirectly by promoting sales of something else. Just as auto makers used to sponsor grand prix racers to spice up the image of their cars, computer manufacturers now sponsor hotshot software designers to build brand recognition for their hardware. The same is true for individuals. The royalties that the Four Sopranos earn from their recordings are surprisingly small; the recordings mainly serve as advertisements for their concerts. The fans attend these concerts not to appreciate the music (they can do that far better at home), but for the experience of seeing their idols in person. In short, instead of becoming a knowledge economy we became a celebrity economy.

Luckily, the same technology that has made it possible to capitalize directly on knowledge has also created many more opportunities for celebrity. The 500-channel world is a place of many subcultures, each with its own heroes. Still, the celebrity economy has been hard on people -- especially for those with a scholarly bent. A century ago, it was actually possible to make a living as a more or less pure scholar. Now if you want to devote yourself to scholarship, there are only three choices. Like Charles Darwin, you can be born rich. Like Alfred Wallace, the less-fortunate co-discoverer of evolution, you can make your living doing something else and pursue research as a hobby. Or, like many 19th-century scientists, you can try to cash in on a scholarly reputation by going on the lecture circuit.

Notes:

Endless channels of media allow for more celebrities, but to smaller audiences. In order to make money from media, celebrities must sell more than their works. Their works must serve as advertisements for something else, like paid performances or lectures.

Folksonomies: art information economy

Time Sequence

Beginnings of the Reputation Economy

The formal reputation networks that exist AF arose organically from the informal social media developed through the 21st century. An early barrier to interacting with strangers online—particularly when engaging in financial transactions—was not knowing if the person you were dealing with was reliable. Primitive reputation scores were the first solution, enabling buyers to rate sellers. These systems rapidly spread to social networks, discussion forums, and filesharing sites, as a way of valuating participants. Concurrently, for the first time, individuals had access to the same public presence capabilities and image-making techniques formerly reserved for those retaining expensive PR firms. Individuals with huge friends lists and blog followings had commercial pull that could sell products, fill clubs, top up campaign coffers, propagate memes, and make or kill trends.

Likewise, companies and social organizations seized an opportunity to more carefully control their public image for increasingly savvy consumers, in an attempt to manage the ratings their products and services received online. Corporations created network presences for their mascots, pitchmen, and products that gave them almost the same data footprint as flesh and blood people (some of the earliest AIs and infomorphs were cultural idoru or designed to maintain online interactions for commercial entities). Although BF networks didn’t have the direct, tangible economic impact of their AF successors, they were a vital stage in their development because they created the linkage between individuals opting in to public information networks and socio-economic benefit. Reputation was increasingly tied to participation in public data sharing, and a polished presentation across multiple media formats and networks was a key to success for individuals and organizations alike.

Notes:

How an alternative economy based on reputation could form in the future.

Folksonomies: economics social networking reputation