11 April 2012

Lenarcic: Cash for your comments sounds tweet

(Herald Sun, 11 April 2012)

A good reputation is more valuable than money, the saying goes, but an increasing number of social network users are turning their internet reputations into cash, products and services.

This personal information economy emerged out of a concern to protect real-world reputations, RMIT business, IT and logistics lecturer Dr John Lenarcic says, but it transformed into something else.

Like an online popularity contest, users on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Flickr and other social networks began to fight for the biggest audiences and, in some cases, began to see the services as a personal marketing opportunity.

"It's like turning one's online reputation into a commodity that you can sell," Dr Lenarcic says.

Note: this is an extract only, not the full article.