Rachel Botsman: The currency of the new economy is trust

This talk by Rachel Botsman explores the rise of the peer 2 peer market place and our online identity and reptations. The internet is allowing a trust between strangers. This trust is created from the social capital of shared values and social interaction which is performed across a range of online platforms which is empowering people to create meaning full connections.

There seems to be a demand for Humanised relationships against the empty transaction we get when go to a big box market or just buying things straight off amazon. People are programmed to need social interaction and that facebook is so important in our busy lives. 

Rachel Botsman talks about a value shifts of wants with haves, which is interesting when put into context of the time we live in with depressing economic prospects and high unemployment. People are unable to keep up with the Jones but however are getting to know the Jones to share and borrow their items. As well this can be explored through sites like freecycle and gumtree where you are able to pick up peoples unwanted items for free.

She also mentions every time a new piece of technology is bought out there is more social interaction allow us to get to know people more easily. For expand the new OSX for Mac has facebook and twitter built in so you are able to share what you are doing off your computer as soon as you do it, instead of going onto the site to share that information. This is allowing to see what we are doing and build and knowledge of us then a trust of us. Technology is making this process easier and easier?

How is digital Identity reflected in the real world? Sites like ebay, linkedin, amazon allow for peer to peer reviews and creates the reputation Rachel is exploring in her research as we are able to see what other have experience of this user and make an informed idea of the person. This could be put into the context of an employer exploring our facebook profile to see if what we said was really true in the interview from what we say and display about ourselves to the social interaction.