The Ingenesist Project

The Next Economic Paradigm

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Using AI to Discern Fact from Fiction

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On July 5, 2023

In General Information

AI Generated Image

AI Generated Image

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is frequently mentioned for its capacity to blur the lines between facts and fiction. Numerous articles envision a future in which AI bots construct believable scenarios without relying on direct observation. Many instances illustrate the potential pitfalls of this. So, if AI can excel at finding the best incorrect answer, why can’t it excel at finding the best correct answer?

In this early stage of widespread AI and machine learning adoption, many proponents acknowledge the necessity of human involvement in the learning process. This raises the age-old question: “Who can we trust?” This is especially pertinent when the incentive is to replace humans with machines. The enduring challenge (and opportunity) is to avoid wholesale human replacement and instead focus on enhancing human abilities with the aid of new technology.

Economics is fundamentally driven by incentives.

The Ingenesist Project’s Innovation Bank provides an ideal environment for AI and machine learning to prioritize facts over fiction. Through a strategic blend of game theory, blockchain technology, and AI, The Innovation Bank introduces an alternative set of incentives that guide participant actions. The Innovation Bank serves as a self-regulating truth engine, safeguarding society against malicious actors attempting to disseminate unfounded or fraudulent claims.

A Multi-Agent Algorithmic Game:

In essence, The Innovation Bank operates as a game in which participants make claims about the state of the world, which must then be validated by other participants. Each participant is rewarded with an electronic token for creating an immutable node on a network graph. As the network expands, the graph accumulates increasingly valuable business intelligence. Accessing this intelligence requires the expenditure of tokens, potentially purchased by institutional users from a third-party clearinghouse. This system eliminates incentives for cheating.

Natural Language Processing (NLP):

AI-powered NLP algorithms can scrutinize the language used in node creation, detecting patterns, inconsistencies, or suspicious elements. NLP models understand context and semantics, enabling them to identify potential fraud or falsehoods. NLP also assists in verifying claims by cross-referencing them with external sources (validating the validator).

Data Analysis and Pattern Recognition:

AI can process and analyze vast amounts of blockchain data to uncover patterns and anomalies. By comparing multiple claims and validations, AI can identify discrepancies or abnormal behavior indicative of fraud. These capabilities help distinguish genuine claims from fraudulent ones, with no incentive for dishonesty.

Image and Video Analysis:

In cases involving visual evidence, AI employs computer vision techniques to analyze images or videos for authenticity. AI assesses image metadata, detects alterations, and evaluates facial expressions and body language to spot potential manipulation or fraud. Here, the condition arises where crafting a believable falsehood becomes more expensive than simply presenting facts.

Network Analysis:

AI examines the connections between nodes in the blockchain network, identifying suspicious networks or clusters that suggest collusion or fraud. This analysis sheds light on the credibility and trustworthiness of suspect nodes.

Continuous Learning and Adaptability:

AI systems continuously learn from new data, adapting algorithms to evolving fraudulent tactics. Machine learning enhances accuracy in distinguishing truth from fraud, even as the system encounters new forms of deception.

Risk Scoring and Fraud Detection:

AI assigns risk scores to nodes based on factors like proximity to other nodes, validation history, and information consistency. Predictive models identify high-risk nodes or validations, alerting the system to isolate these sources.

Conclusion:

A new economic framework can be seamlessly integrated into existing business methods, creating a condition where falsification is costlier than authenticity. This sharpens the blurry line between fact and fiction. Under this condition, AI can play a vital role in discerning fact from fiction by tracking the creation, circulation, and adoption of digital receipts. AI’s analytical prowess, pattern recognition, and continuous learning ensure the system remains robust at isolating fraudulent activities. The combination of blockchain technology and AI-driven analysis forms a potent framework for curating truthful information and upholding system integrity.

Artificial Intelligence is widely cited for the potential to spoof facts with fiction. Countless articles predict a world where AI bots craft statistical plausibility in the absence of direct observation. Countless examples demonstrate how this can go terribly wrong. So, If AI can be used to find the best wrong answer, why can’t it be used to find the best right answer?

At this early stage of widespread adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), many proponents have conceded that human involvement in the learning protocol will be necessary. This leads to the age old problem of: “who do you trust?” – especially where the incentive is to replace humans with machines. The age-old challenge (and opportunity) will be to resist the wholesale replacement of humans and focus on creating a higher order where humans ability is amplifies with the assistance of new technology.

Economics is the Science of Incentives

The Innovation Bank creates an environment ideally suited for AI/ML to anchor facts over fiction. Using a strategic combination of game theory, blockchain, and AI, The Innovation Bank introduces an alternate set of incentives under which participants will operate. The Innovation Bank forms a self-regulating truth engine that can safeguard the health and welfare of society against malicious actors actively trying to pass off unfounded or fraudulent claims.

Multi-Agent Algorithmic Game

Briefly described, the Innovation Bank is a game where players make claims about the state of the world. These claims must then be validated by another player. Each player is then rewarded an electronic token for producing an immutable node on a network graph. As the network grows, its graph stores increasingly valuable business intelligence. In order to access this business intelligence, one must expend tokens. Institutional users would likely need to purchase tokens from a 3rd party clearinghouse listing from those who may seek to liquidate their tokens, thereby giving them a market value based on supply and demand. There is no incentive to cheat.

Natural Language Processing (NLP):

AI-powered NLP algorithms can analyze the language used in the formation of nodes, looking for patterns, inconsistencies, or suspicious elements. By understanding the context and semantic meaning of the text, NLP models can identify potential instances of fraud or falsehoods. NLP can also assist in verifying claims by cross-referencing them with external sources of information (validating the validator).

Data Analysis and Pattern Recognition:

AI can process and analyze large volumes of data within the blockchain to identify patterns and anomalies. By comparing multiple claims and validations, AI algorithms can detect and isolate discrepancies or abnormal behavior that may indicate fraudulent activities. These analytical capabilities help in distinguishing genuine claims from fraudulent ones. Again, there is no incentive to cheat.

Image and Video Analysis:

In scenarios where claims involve visual evidence, AI can employ computer vision techniques to analyze images or videos and determine their authenticity. AI algorithms can assess image metadata, detect alterations, or analyze facial expressions and body language to identify and isolate potential manipulations or fraudulent content. An essential condition is reached where forming a viable falsehood is more expensive than simply providing fact.

Network Analysis:

AI can examine the relationships and connections between nodes in the blockchain network. By analyzing the patterns of validations and associations, AI algorithms can identify suspicious networks or clusters that might indicate collusion or fraudulent behavior. This network analysis provides valuable insights into the credibility and trustworthiness of suspect nodes.

Continuous Learning and Adaptability:

AI systems can continuously learn from new data and adapt their algorithms to evolving fraudulent techniques. By leveraging machine learning, AI models improve over time, becoming more accurate in distinguishing between truth and fraud. As the system encounters new types of fraud, AI can detect emerging patterns and update the validation mechanisms accordingly.

Risk Scoring and Fraud Detection:

AI can assign risk scores to specific nodes based on various factors, such as proximate to other nodes, validation history, and the consistency of information. By utilizing predictive models, AI can identify high-risk nodes or validations, alerting the system to isolate that particular source node.

Conclusion:

A new economic game can be easily inserted to existing business methods to create the essential condition where falsification is more expensive than authenticity. Under this condition, AI can become very useful in isolating fact over fiction by simply tracking the creation, circulation, and uptake of digital receipts. AI’s analytical capabilities, pattern recognition, and continuous learning ensure that the system remains robust and effective in isolating fraudulent activities. The combination of blockchain technology and AI-driven analysis forms a powerful framework for curating truthful information and maintaining the integrity of the system.

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The Return of The Ingenesist Project

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On November 13, 2019

In General Information

After about 4 years of not posting to this site, I have decided to return to the original ideas that resulted in so much innovation in this space. For a quick review, the term “Ingenesist” is derived from the Latin word for Engineer – A Maker of Useful Things.

The TIP archives found here include almost 600 blog posts (site map) approaching 1/2 million words. You’ll find the original thesis for the international mobility of engineers under NAFTA between US, Canada, and Mexico. That project involved 6 universities, the California Board of Professional Engineers, The National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors, and the National Society of Professional Engineers – and with the cooperation and support of CETYS University, the Baja California State Government, and over 250 Engineers from Mexico who presented the US Engineering Board exams.

That work was further developed at the Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company and published at the Boeing Technical Excellence series of conferences by their Technical Fellowship. From this effort, TIP developed The Innovation Bank that would match most worthy knowledge surplus to most worthy knowledge deficit to form an internal market (network) for knowledge transfer. That work is memorialized in an old 2007 Patent Application

Later, TIP co-founded Social Flights – a ride sharing service for private jets. The innovation was our ability to predict most likely passengers and match them with most likely seats available on private aircraft. Supply and demand were both dynamic. Keep in mind that this was before Uber and we were acting within a highly regulated industry. Ultimately Social Flights was acquired.

TIP developed three key innovations:

The Value Game: An economic game where multiple self-interested agents must share a common asset. Their motivation and incentive would be to preserve the asset rather than consume the asset. This was supposed to simulate a sustainable economy such as what is desperately needed for our planet. The Value Game originated at Boeing and was tested with Social Flights and successfully deployed in several remodeling projects for condominium associations (shares asset communities)

The WIKiD Tools Algorithm. WIKiD Tools creates a mathematical relationship between (viewed backwards) Data, information, Knowledge, Innovation, and Wisdom. WIKiD tools is useful when you can’t measure something like innovation directly, you could measure a derivative such as the “rate of change in knowledge” as a proxy. In this way,the richness of Wisdom, Information, Knowledge, information, and Data can be more predictable.

Curiosumé is a combination of the words Curate and Resumé. The idea behind curiosumé is to convert the CV or Resumé to a form of code that can be overlaid on other information databases such as Wikipedia, Amazon ontology, even the Library of Congress. This allows us to measure intangible assets as they act in a community.

Then Came Blockchain:

We stopped publishing to The Ingenesist Project in 2016 in order to apply TIP innovations to emerging technologies such as Social Media, Blockchain, AI, etc. It appeared that the decentralization of the engineering profession would be an important step in achieving the original goals of sustainable global enterprise. During this time, I also started a small engineering consulting firm called CoEngineers, PLLC that served a traditional local market bringing engineering services to a retail clientele. CoEngineers, PLLC helped pay the bills while also serving as a sandbox for testing and developing TIP Innovations. Our first entry into blockchain was the creation of a token called Quant on the BitShares Blockchain.

SIBOS, NSPE Task Force, and National Association of Insurance Commisioners: Collectively each of these organizations represent the Banking Industry, The Insurance Industry, and the Engineering Profession. TIP published 3 whitepapers that became the basis for the next iteration. It was noted that each of these industries trade an invisible currency called Risk. It was found that TIP methodologies were better described by actuarial math (probabilities) rather than interest laden monetary metrics. This 3-way association became the genesis of the Insurance / Engineering Blockchain Consortium. This was later changed to the Integrated Engineering Blockchain Consortium or IEBC.

IEBC: Over the course of several years, IEBC was the umbrella organization for 150 engineers, scientists, and business persons who advanced the idea of a decentralized engineering network to mesh with the banking and insurance environments. IEBC published numerous seminal documents and spoke at dozens of industry conferences. The two main achievements were to publish a whitepaper with detailed specifications for a blockchain strategy that would accommodate all prior TIP innovations. The IEBC team built a prototype blockchain by cloning an existing successful chain and modifying it to suit MVP demonstration. IEBC ultimately ramped down for lack of funding. But everything we learned is now open for iteration.

Where to re-Start? TIP has always been a place where ideas are formed and implemented either by ourselves or by others. Many TIP Ideas survive to this day in the many hundreds of engineers and scientists who have participated in the conversations, the start-ups, the publications, lectures, and webinars over the last 15-20 years. We can see many past TIP contributors advancing in their careers, businesses, and leadership roles.

There is something that binds people to this network – it has to do with the underlying belief that Makers Of Useful Things are the cause, not the effect, of sound and sustainable economic activity. The flaw of market capitalism has the world operating in a mirror image of the economy that was supposed to happen. The solution is more about perception than it is about revolution.

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New Value Movement Session Primer

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On August 4, 2012

In General Information

Thank you for participating in the New Value Movement discussions.

I have compiled this post to help our panelists refresh the basics of The New Value Movement. This is the body of content that we are trying to improve:

If you find them difficult to follow, then that is what needs improvement.  I’ll do a quick review at the sessions as well.

We need to tell an epic story.

New Value Movement Session Primer – Total viewing time is about 33 minutes.

***

SIBOS 2011 (6:39 minutes)  this video is the Launch presentation for the NVM delivered to financial industry professional at SIBOS Innotribe sessions in Toronto 2011.  It introduces ideas corresponding to the Zertify, Gamidox, and Exoquant applications.

****

This next video describes The Knowledge Asset Inventory (5:30 Minutes) and corresponds to the Zertify Application concept.  However, the actual methodology is masked and I have not published this openly the web – this is the only secret we keep at this point. The actual methodology will be revealed at the session.

***

The next video describes The Value Game; a system for accounting for new value (12:17 minutes); and corresponds to the Gamidox application. This was originally used to launch a start-up called Social Flights. However, there are several layers of informative examples in this video.

Next: The algorithm for monetizing (making tangible) of intangible value is described in the video below (5:30 minutes) and corresponds to the Exoquant Application.

Finally; predictions 2020 begins to lay out the scope of influence that alternate economics may have if done correctly. As such, this video (3:30 minutes) suggests the scope of audience that the New Value Movement narrative should access.

Again, thank you for your time, effort, experience, and intellect participating on this panel. Dear regular blog readers: please continue to leave comments or connect with me to get involved with the New Value Movement.

New Value Movement Session Primer

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New Value And The Future Of Money

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On April 25, 2012

In General Information

The 3rd Annual Future of Money and Technology Summit was held in San Francisco on April 23rd, 2012.  This was my 3rd appearance at the Summit and I must say that #3 was one of the most profound experiences that I have had a conference.  FOM&T is possibly one of the most important conferences of its kind.

Lunatic Fringe

Several years ago, many ideas that are now becoming mainstream were fringe topics at best.  At one time, the very idea that intangibles may in fact be immensely tangible, drew razor shards of broken glass from the KM community toward anyone who ventured toward such a claim.  Then, modern events such as Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street demonstrated a direct challenge to very tangible “guns and money” brought by new ways of organizing communities around intangible assets.

The fringe questions of today become mainstream questions tomorrow

Now, what happens if we turn that concept into a means of producing the things that people really need instead of producing things that people don’t really need? What happens when people interact around a shared asset – either tangible or intangible – will they work to preserve the asset or consume it?  What if an economy arose where the Earth is the shared asset?  What if an economy arose where the individual was a shared asset? what if Both happened?  What would that look like?

A Value Game

The New Value Movement Panel came together around those ideas.  When I set this panel up, I created a value game – each of the people has something to gain from the success of the others on the panel.  This  panel shared an intangible asset in the form of a conversation.

The outcome was movement – a new value movement. Please watch this video and contact me with your thoughts – I am deeply interested in your interpretation of what happened here.
Thank you.

I hope to see you all at the next Future of Money and Technology Summit

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The New Value Movement

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On April 5, 2012

In General Information

It’s time once again for The Future of Money and Technology Summit in San Francisco on April 23, 2012.  Each year this community of visionaries dive deeper into the subject of alternate economics as the public narrative around the subject also increases.  This is truly an important event.  Please register here.

In full disclosure, the producers of FOM&T trusted me to assemble this panel to advance a theme that was initiated at Sibos Innotribe Sessions (Toronto 2011).  I elected to NOT appoint myself moderator – Dr. V is much more experienced in that role.   Instead, I will attempt to speak for the Ingenesist.  The word ingenesist is derived from the Latin word for engineer – an ingenesist is any person who creates real value through their social, creative, and intellectual abilities. For this reason, the panel is titled:

The New Value Movement

Past panels in this segment at FOM&T included discussions about non-quantifyable exchanges and intangible capital.  This panel introduces the New Value Movement where emergent ideas and associated web applications seek to allow non-quantifiable exchanges to become “quantifiable” and Intangible Capital to become “tangible”.

Like the Beatles once sang “Money Can’t Buy Me Love”, New Value refers to those things that cannot necessarily be produced through the allocation of classical factors such as land, labor, and capital. Rather, the next generation of entrepreneurs will allocate resources of social capital, creative capital, and intellectual capital in order to produce the things that society needs.

Innovations such as trust networks, knowledge inventories, social games, and abundance capitalism will become increasingly important and hold great promise for hedging the inevitable constraints on fiat currency.

Dr. Amy Vanderbilt – moderator

Dr. V is the Founder and Chief Strategist at TrendPOV.com, next generation social omni-media that over 600 thousand executives call GPS for your business strategy.  Amy is an award-winning author, show host, executive coach, speaker, board member, and  commentator. She has distinguished herself in academia, private and public industry as well as government. (full bio here)

Patrick Murck

Speaking to the existing legal structures and foundations that would support the storage and exchange of New Value Enterprise is Patrick Murck.  Patrick is a Principal and Founder of Engage Strategy and Engage Legal.  Patrick helps clients innovate, operate and grow their business with a heightened focus on the legal and regulatory issues governing the use of virtual economies, gamification, alternative payment systems, and social loyalty and reward programs. (full bio here)

Joe Johnson

Speaking to the emergence of a new class of business methods is Joe Johnson, CEO and head coder of runaway startup called Connect.me.  Connect.Me is a new reputation and people discovery network creating a consolidated platform for social verification and trust in P2P and freelance economies. In 2011, Connect.Me won the prestigious Privacy Award from the European Identity Conference for its groundbreaking trust framework and business model. (full bio here)

My Role:

In Amy’s world of executives consulting, the ingenesist includes the designer new products.  In Patricks world, the ingenesist may be an innovator from Anytown USA trying to navigate the intricacies of law, money, and finance.  In Joe’s world, the ingenesist is the cloud of specialized skill holders looking for each other to create value together.  I often argue that all value not created directly by Mother Nature, was created by the ingenesist within all of us.

Please join us as Dr. Vanderbilt skillfully weaves the ideas, needs, and predictions of this extraordinary combination of panelists into a unique and more complete view of the great opportunities that await on the horizon of this unprecedented financial revolution.   
***
The Future of Money & Technology Summit brings together the best and brightest thinkers around money, including visionaries, entrepreneurial business people, developers, press, investors, authors, solution providers, service providers, and organizations who work with them at the convergence of cash and commerce. We meet to discuss the evolving money ecosystem in a proactive, conducive to dealmaking environment.
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A Grand Central Value Game

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On March 7, 2011

In General Information

Few people realize that there is nothing new about the Social Graph.  Facebook did not invent it – in fact, Graph Theory is a branch of discrete mathematics that was first developed back in the 1700’s by a Swiss Physicist named Leonard Euler.

Likewise, Zynga did not invent Game Theory.  Again, Game theory is a branch of Applied Mathematics with origins dating back to the 1700’s in a paper by James Waldegrave.

A Graph Theory and Game Theory Mash-up

It follows that The Ingenesist Project is not the first to mix graph theory and game theory to form A Value Game.  While I cannot pinpoint the first example of this, I did recently find an article in American Heritage Magazine Invention and Technology magazine about what appears to be an excellent early example of A Value Game.

Not So Grand Central Station

In the late 1800’s, New York City’s Central Train Station was clearly not so grand.  It amounted to a huge surface train depot with dozens of parallel lines and platforms covered by a huge structure that filled with smoke from the old steam engines.  The train yard bisected 17 blocks of neighborhoods where soot and ash rained everywhere.  The station created widespread urban blight and health issues for dozens of city blocks surrounding the terminal.

Politicians and the Railroad Companies tried to correct the problems but every proposed solution created ten more problems.  Too many trains, not enough land, technological struggles, funding, traffic, property values, pollution, safety, collisions, politics, noise, fires, were only a few of the problems in conflict.

A Grand Central Value Game

Today, Grand Central Station is a model of ingenuity resulting from a brilliant and engaging solution to a complex problem.  A remarkable Engineer named William J. Wilgus had created something that looks a great deal like a modern Value Game.

Three Dimensions to A Value Game

His first challenge was to pay for the construction of a new station.  His second challenge was to build the station without closing the existing station.  His third challenge was to not use any more land.

His solution was to bury the station.  He made the walls of his underground structure strong enough to support large buildings (now skyscrapers) above.  He then used the huge real estate market gains to finance the project

Grand Central Valley Game:

In this case, the very important railroad station was the shared asset.  Player 1 was the community (politicians) surrounding the station, player 2 was the real estate market, and player 3 was the railroads.  Each acting in their best interest collaborated to arrive at a solution to what was considered an impossible problem.

With the advent of Social Media and collaborative gaming technologies, “Value Games” may be created to solve many of the world’s most complex problems while also releasing vast amounts of value to a social system simply by reorganizing the same players on a three dimensional playing field interacting around any shared asset.

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What Is An Ingenesist?

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On December 22, 2010

In General Information

Eric Rosenblith 1920-2010

I have been putting off writing this blog post until I could find a simple answer to the question “What is an Ingenesist?”.  I invented the term “Ingenesist” to capture the creative, intellectual and social nature of human ingenuity without falling back on current definitions and the silos that perpetuate them. Something has gone wrong with the world and the solution could not be found in the current world view – I needed a new word for my work.

Ingenesist comes from the Latin (ingeniare), French (ingénieur), and Spanish (ingeniero) word for Engineer.  These words, of course, were created long before an engineer was defined by such alphabet soup as BSME. MSCE, IEEE, ABET, NCEES, EIT, PE, etc…  The term ‘Ingenesist’ was meant to represent people whose ideas and actions increase the productivity of other people.

A friend of mine lost his dad yesterday.  I read the obituary and could not help but realize that this person lived through what were likely the darkest and the brightest hours of modern human civilization.  He was an artist and a teacher.

Then I hit the quote in Mr. Rosenblith’s obituary:

“We truly need to be thinkers, poets, painters, engineers, and philosophers.’’ – Eric Rosenblith

And that is how I found my simple answer.  With humility and simplicity, he captured the creative, intellectual and social nature of human ingenuity. The least I could do was finally write this blog post.

My sincere condolences to Alan and his family.  Please support the Symbionomics Project on Kickstarter

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An IPO For Humanity

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On August 26, 2010

In General Information

The term IPO conjures images of empire-making where a hot young company with a great product offers pieces of its future-self for sale to the public as a means of raising money without incurring debt.  The money is then used to create the next titan whose new jolt of growth is shared with all who participated.

Today, every annual report to shareholders touts the great team of people whose social, creative, and intellectual capital make it all happen, the worthy and stoic investors whose vision drives sound decisions, and the legions of happy customers who make it all worthwhile.

Essentially, an IPO is people buying into the productivity of other people.

Yet, the IPO is a strict and complex legal and regulatory maneuver that establishes property rights on these small pieces of future productivity – represented by “stock” in the company.

There are underwriters (usually a bank), battalions of lawyers, the securities and exchanges commission (SEC), brokers, insurers, re-insurers, institutional investors, private investors, and retail investors.  There is a full infrastructure supporting the facts of incorporation, disclosure, accounting, and proper management of internal “inside” information.  And, of course, there is a media /PR campaign.  All are integrated to keep the game fair, yet viable.

In the Age of Social Media

I could be wrong but it seems that such vast infrastructure appears a bit awkward if the end result is simply for people to buy into the productivity of other people.  This happens everyday in Social Media.  At some point, we really need to ask; why can’t an individual or a group of individuals raise money without incurring debt like corporations can?

In Social Media, people own and deploy their relationships,  communities, motivation, their knowledge, creativity, intellect, mentorship, leadership, teamwork, their network, and even their ability to form corporations – people own their time.  Social currency is backed by the scarcity of time and the availability of surplus knowledge.

All of the structural components of the financial system are appearing in an analogous form in social media; social vetting, social gaming, aggregation, influence, knowledge inventories, communities of knowledge assets, local social, global social, tag search, deep search, semantic search, stream of consciousness search, geolocation, mobile computing, multi-media, and many more innovations are being created and deployed everyday which literally serve the functions of banks, lawyers and legislation in an invisible economy.

The Ingenesist Project tries to string this all together with just enough specificity so that an alternate financial system will jump start itself and become both visible and available to everyone.

We’ll hold an IPO for Humanity

All of the infrastructure and the potential for people to produce things would remain intact regardless of what happens to the currency.  Think about what would happen if all the dollar based money system evaporated. The only safe haven for the storage and exchange of value will be in people and their communities.

The only thing missing is a system that can articulate social capital, creative capital, and intellectual capital instead of land labor and financial capital.  This system can be built today.

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Future of Money and Technology Summit; Non-Quantifiable Exchanges

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On May 8, 2010

In General Information

The above video playlist consists of the full 6 parts of the expert panel discussing non-quantifiable exchanges as recorded on April 26 2010 at the Future of Money and Technology Summit in San Francisco. The complete video is about 55 minutes. I encourage you to watch it because very few discussions about the future of money approach the subject with as much experience, introspection, and clarity as this historic panel has.

This is not another doom-gloom room – but a truly optimistic model of a future financial system built on a platform of social media. These panelists represent some of the top thought leaders, visionaries, and practitioners in the area of “Local Social” – where nothing happens until the rubber meets the road. It was a great privilege for me to be a part of this esteemed group.

Panelists:

Tara Hunt; Social Media Strategist, Author: The Whuffie Factor
Daniel Robles, Director, The Ingenesist Project
Micki Krimmel, CEO; NeighborGoods
Chris Heuer, CEO, Social Media Club

Moderator: Tara Hunt

The future of Money and Technology Summit is one of the most important conferences to emerge as a result of the accelerated innovation and organizational re-structuring forming as a result of increasing constraints on the global financial system. We all look forward to another excellent conference next year!

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Social Currency and Anonymity

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On April 24, 2010

In General Information

The subject of privacy and anonymity are again rising up with the latest move by Facebook to integrate updates across the Internet onto the Facebook platform.

Conspiracy theories about Facebook and the CIA continue to flourish.  Meanwhile, the marketing and advertising industry seems poised to reboot their dwindling influence under a new cloak and dagger of social media data hustling and predictive demographics rather than playing by new rules of engagement.

Money is one thing and value is another.

I am astonished that people willingly and freely give up huge volumes of information about themselves when they really don’t have to.  In earlier times, marketers and advertisers would pay a great deal of money for far less information that people give them for free.  People do not understand the value that is stored between their ears or how easy it would be to set up an alternate economy that trades in social currencies.

If advertisers can pay someone to cold call me, to graph my data across the web, or sneak around my social networks, then they can certainly pay me to answer the phone.

The Ingenesist Project specifies an Innovation Economy built on the platform of social media.  While that thesis is extensive, let me summarize that the primordial soup of the Innovation Economy is called the Knowledge Asset Inventory.

Anonymous assets

One essential element of the new economic paradigm is the ability to combine knowledge assets so that innovation becomes predictable and therefore capitalized. However, a side effect is that such code makes the individual containers anonymous.  Marketers will have to pay you to find you.  here is why:

Now think about it this way – if you remove 20-dollar bill from your wallet to buy a Latte, you do not know (nor do you care) whether the last transaction performed by that 20-dollar bill was a donation to a charitable cause or a drug deal.  The dollar bill is anonymous – but you, as an asset, are not.

Social Currency is a Social Imperative

Dollar denominated money is a system to control social currency at a leverage factor of 1000:1.  Take away the dollar currency, and the leverage disappears.  Add a social currency and the national debt disappears.

Almost as a bonus, it is an absolute impossibility for marketers and advertisers to store and exchange value denominated in a social currency without extraordinary changes to the way they engage their clients….like, uhm, …don’t waste our time.

If we are smart, we can shut down the privacy issue in a hurry – anonymity of knowledge assets is the key.

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Is Anonymity an Asset or a Liability?

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On April 7, 2010

In General Information

Facebook is delivering incredibly rich data about people, their activities, preferences and knowledge assets right to the doorstep of marketers, employers, and likely, Government.  Is Anonymity an Asset or a Liability?

Uhm…is this what the users had in mind?

“Local Social” is an absolute imperative for monetization of Social Media – every application needs some degree of local integration. Here’s why: Nothing happens until people get together and build something, produce something, or create something together. That is what “an economy” is, that is what “a company” is, that is what “a Market” is, that is what “a conversation” is.

Facebook knows this, but there is a catch; “Local Social” does not need a big platform like Facebook – a small one would do fine. However, Facebook needs the micro platform in order to monetize. In other words, Facebook needs Communities more than Communities need Facebook.

If Facebook is not careful, a huge opportunity awaits a competitor to disrupt the Facebook parade with high value, high segmentation, and high anonymity – and still monetize.

The irony is that Facebook Groups will empower the community to spin off and compete with it.

Here is what will happen:

Facebook must provides consumers with the same information about corporations as they provide to corporations about consumers. Corporations need to be willing to expose themselves to transparency. People will undoubtedly publish the names and addresses of the CEO of the corporations in their communities. Their names, prefered music, groups joined, and Farmville wiggly worms, etc.

If someone goes through extraordinary effort to not be seen, that too will become a data point – distrust.

People are not dumb, entrepreneurs will find a way to make the game fair. Facebook will find itself regulated by its own community. Only then can we expect the level of opportunity and accountability that is required to support a fully convertible universal social currency.

It’s up to Facebook now – I hope they know what they are doing.

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Culture: When Engagement Is Not Optional

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On March 26, 2010

In General Information

Today we see Social Media duplicating many of the functions of earlier society by storing community wisdom, applying social vetting, and deploying social currencies.

It takes a Community

Here is an article is about a a person who learned through social media profiling that her fiance was active in hobbies that conflicted with her moral constitution – before the wedding instead of after.  In the old days, the community would also profile each individual based on the social record of their behavior.

Social Capitalism

Here is a video article that discusses how social media is  duplicating many functions of the corporation outside the construct of the corporation. Factors of production increasingly enter the org chart as a social media application.  We now question whether the corporation itself is the sole vehicle of wealth creation.

Social Currency

We see social media duplicating many of the functions of the financial system where currency, credit scores, banks, land, labor, and capital are being replaced by social currency, social vetting, social capital, creative capital, and social entrepreneurs.

Macro vs. Micro

We see divisions of scale from the long-winded one-sided content of the static web presence to the micro blogging applications that more closely resemble a conversation.  Time factors are accelerated to the point where real-time is not fast enough.

Local vs. Global

We see an emerging segmentation between Local Social and Global Social. At first global leverage was the awarded the small entrepreneur with something to offer to the world.  Now ‘Local Social’ enjoys substantial leverage over global corporations by reorganizing the way people prioritize and experience each other and their community.

Everyone is a node

Taking an analogy from the physics of electricity, the term “potential” means the difference in energy between two nodes.  The greater the difference, the bigger the spark and the greater the impact.   The local energy at each node influences the direction and size of sparks between nodes.  As people accumulate ‘Social Current’, their position relative to those around them changes. Likewise, their potential also changes relative to the ‘Social Current’ of others. Everyone has some potential relative to every other node.

Integration has arrived

Much like the knowledge economy integrated, but did not replace, the agrarian economy, Social Media will not replace the corporation, the financial system, dissertation, conversations, localization or globalization.  Rather, everyone becomes a corporation, everyone prints their own social currency, everyone publishes their intentions, everyone has local and global leverage.  That’s what Integration is all about.

A ‘culture of one’ is moot.

It is not surprising then that our culture itself is now being defined in terms of social media with effective aggregation of  social norms, storage of social wisdom, and medium of exchange for community ideals.  The true test of “culture status” is when engagement is no longer an optional.  Without engagement, there is no culture.


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Social Media: Power By The Hour

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On March 3, 2010

In General Information

Making human knowledge and intentions tangible in a market place opens up the possibility of a whole new class of business plans. We call this Social Power by the Hour.

A Social Trifecta

1. Obviously, Social Media is powerful.

2. Fractional ownership or rental of assets is an emerging trend in our environmentally, geographically, and monetarily constrained economy.

3.Vendor Relationship Management (Doc Searles) promises to change the shape of traditional advertising in the future.

What if we combined all three?

ZipCar is an excellent example of the fractional membership for automobile transportation. There are many advantages but also huge drawbacks. $7.00 per hour is a lot to add to a casual lunch at a sidewalk café or any social experience. Then there are all the lost options like the one-way-trip, guaranteed availability, all those rules and regulations. So, it’s pay now or pay later.

Social memberships

What if your friends in the social network also had ZipCar memberships and the scheduling were interchangeable? Suppose you could find a ZipCar anywhere and park one anywhere?

Now, enter the Vendor of goods and service. What if the Vendor were to subsidize the cost of the ZipCar to bring 4 people into the restaurant, club, or event? What if amusement parks, zoos and art exhibitions helped pay for full car-loads of friends to drive themselves to events?

The Vetting Mechanism:

What if the real social value of the ZipCar could be compared to car ownership for each intended trip? How would this influence your decision to drive, plan, or combine events into your user experience? What if Vendors could influence that cost to drive incentives?

Power By The Hour Game

The Above schematic is What I’ll Call the Social Media Power by the Hour Game. Everyone is part of the same social network and can talk to each other. Each Box represents a player that can influence the cost of the power by the hour. The True Value Calculator keeps score by comparing each transaction value to the equivalent car-ownership or public transportation value.

Set your filters and wait for the proposition…

Instead of scheduling, everyone (including passengers, vendors, social network) start by setting a bunch of filters that represent their approximate intentions. The system compares the intentions with ZipCar locations and compares it to the True Value Calculator. When a suitable transaction is in play, all the players are notified.

Once the game starts and enough people play, statistically, there should be ZipCars distributed proportionally around the city and all vendors will be managing their marketing campaign with 100% ROI on their impressions. The system will become a self optimizing money game.

A fully convertible currency

At first, this may seem like an application to sell ZipCar memberships, but actually, it is selling odds and entrepreneurs are placing bets. The ZipCar is simply a mechanical device that converts social currency into money.

A few Scenarios:

Scenario 1: When a vendor notices a group of friends going to the mall, they can pay for part of the ZipCar with a lunch coupon.

Scenario 2: Amusement park or event promoter can see when a family has no plans and can offer a free ZipCar to them

Scenario 3: The bigger your social network, the cheaper it becomes for you to drive a car

Scenario 4: Vendors can bid for the ZipCar audience with Packages of discounts, coupons and also earn impressions and trust.

Scenario 5: Friends can see what other friends are doing and can jump in the same ZipCar

Scenario 6: ZipCars can be parked densely at events since you will not necessarily leave in the same car that you came in.

Scenario 7: As soon as you park, the zip car becomes available for someone else. As soon as you need one, there is a high probability one is parked close by.

Scenario 6: ZipCar options can be traded like currency to buy things on, say, Craigslist

And many many many more……..

End result: The bigger your social network, the cheaper your Power By the Hour. The bigger the social network, the more effective WOM marketing becomes. The bigger the social network, the more options are available to users. The greater the social network, the more SOCIAL VALUE a ZipCar membership will have in comparison to independent car ownership. The bigger the social network, the more social currency can trade hands as the Dollar fails.

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What is the Secret Sauce of Innovation?

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On February 16, 2010

In General Information

Most studies on Innovation study the to 99th percentile human in the hope of discovering the “secret sauce” of wealth creation. One such study identifies 5 discovery skills and conclude that the top innovators are also in the top percentile for all these skills. What a surprise that the top university would conclude that they – and people like them – were the secret sauce of all wealth creation.

But what about the rest of the world? What about the individuals and teams of people who actually carry out the plans of those great people? Are they relegated to the footnotes or is there a way for two or more people to simulate the attributes of a 99th percentile person?

This video argues that a 6th discovery skill is the ability to recognize one’s weaknesses AND the strengths of another person. This takes humility and an knowledge inventory of one’s community. Given the ubiquitousness of the persistent economic crisis, ostensibly managed by those paragons of intellect, the masters of the 5 discovery skills – we may need a new way of building so-called “consensus” about what innovation is and who the innovators are.

(I did fail to point out in this discussion that the ability to network with similar people is a distinctly different than the ability to network with dissimilar people. As such, the 5th discovery skill and the 6th are distinct)

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Social Currency And The Innovation Bank

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On February 13, 2010

In General Information

The real estate market is trashed, money markets are unstable, commodities are in the tank, the banking system is corrupted to the core, inflation is looming around every corner, and the politicians are engorging themselves in a game of Cerebral Gridlock.

Literally, there is no safe place to put your money. Instead, people are investing their productivity in social media – social media is simply a storage device for knowledge assets. Soon it will become a stock exchange for knowledge assets. Investors should not take this lightly – the best place to store your money is in the real productivity of real people.

People are trading knowledge assets in social media. This exchange is denominated by a conversational currency. If we consider the structure of conversations and compare that to both the structure of social networks AND the structure of our financial system, we see a huge opportunity to develop an alternate financial system that can capitalize and securitize knowledge assets in social media.

Ingenesist.com

Music by Phil Felicia

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Social Media as a Vetting Mechanism

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On February 9, 2010

In General Information

Where the vetting mechanism fails, the system fails. This has happened in countless instances from the current financial crisis to nearly every product, market, environmental calamity, or political failure in recorded history – the referees who were supposed to keep their eye on the ball, did not. Likewise, where a vetting mechanism is effective, the system is efficient.

EBay does little more than defend the vetting mechanism (feedback system) and entrepreneurs do the rest. The credit score allows companies and people to capitalize and securitize assets. The US legal system keeps the game of commerce as fair as practical. Police officers and school boards keep our society safe and smart. We often overlook the importance of vetting in our communities.

Today, we find severe problems in finance and government and people are investing their knowledge assets in social media as the place to “store and exchange” their present and future productivity – instead of debt. As such, social vetting is taking many different forms to validate, qualify, and quantify those assets.

While the progression may not be noticeable, there will be a tipping point where the medium has built enough trust that it can support a currency. This new currency needs to be only a little bit more “trustworthy” than the currency it will replace. This is the point where knowledge becomes tangible.

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Video: The Calculus of Global Outsourcing

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On February 8, 2010

In General Information

Picture credit

The knowledge economy is a completely different asset than the industrial revolution’s Land, labor, Capital economy. Yet, our modern accounting systems and even our definitions of terms such as innovation, work, employment, education, are built from industrial era or military logistic roots.

Modern Globalization is a system – it must be analyzed like a system. Data, Information, knowledge, and Innovation are profoundly related in a system. If you take away one of the components, the others become worthless.

When we outsource our knowledge economy, the innovation economy is exterminated. The Ingenesist project specifies an Innovation Economy built on social media which will capture the knowledge inventory of communities – let’s hope that we have not forgotten how to build an ….

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Video; Will Social Capitalism Replace the Corporation?

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On February 6, 2010

In General Information

Meet the new Org Chart

A corporation is simply a legal entity – otherwise, it is fictitious. A corporation is made up of people who have a social agreement among themselves to do what is in the best interest of the legal entity.

There is very little about a corporation that cannot be duplicated in social media. This calls into question the nature of social media vs. the nature of corporations.  Here we uncover a third pillar to the US economic recovery; Social Capitalism.

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Video; You Can’t Make a Bet Without Odds

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On February 2, 2010

In General Information

Entrepreneurs won’t make a bet without odds. So when it comes down to assembling knowledge assets into an innovation enterprise, how can entrepreneurs predict the likelihood that they will be successful? The short answer is that they cannot.

The simple truth is that humans have not evolved to the point where they will organize themselves as knowledge assets in a financial system – they still need to use a proxy for their productivity controlled by a master, a corporation, an idealism. It’s called money, politics, and fear.

This is the greatest constraint on economic growth that America faces, not inflation, debt, taxes, or regulation….entrepreneurs have simply run out of info juice. This is the greatest challenge of our times. What are the odds that we’ll figure it out?

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Where is The Knowledge Inventory?

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On January 30, 2010

In General Information

There is no knowledge inventory of our communities. The is a STUNNING omission for a country whose only hope at climbing out of economic hardship is sequestered within the innovative minds of its people.

If done correctly, knowledge can behave as an asset of trade. This must first start with a comprehensive knowledge inventory. Like the human genome project, the knowledge inventory project must be a sustained effort.

Link to specification document

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Video: Tangible Knowledge; The Holy Grail of Social Media

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On January 22, 2010

In General Information

Accounting Balance sheets have tangible assets and intangible assets. Unfortunately, intangible often means invisible and those on the dark side of the moon wind up in the unemployment line.

What if knowledge assets were tangible? What if you owned your knowledge like a company owns a structure or specialized machinery? What if it could be quantified and qualified so that it resembles all other tangible assets? Easy answer…entrepreneurs will trade it, like money.

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Pssst … Wanna Get Wasted?

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On January 16, 2010

In General Information

Many Social Media Gurus are espousing a new culture that their clients should forget about blogging (adding meaningful content) in favor of the ubiquitous widespread “updates”.

Using automated apps, you no longer need to waste time creating content that teaches or expresses, you can populate across social media space carefully wedged in between someone else’s creative content. I find this appalling.

The new marketing mantras go something like these:

  • “Go where your customers congregate”.
  • “Gain their trust by sharing your stuff”
  • “Soon, you can start to influence their behavior”
  • “Once hooked, they will do your deed for freeeee!!”

This is starting to sound more like the neighborhood drug dealer than any sustainable economic paradigm.

Slavery on Steroids

Slavery is a term characterized in part by the coercion of another person to perform or act without compensation. The effects of slavery are not only physical, but mental as well.  The effects of oppression manifest themselves in addictive behaviors.

Social acceptance is an extremely powerful psychotic that can be cleverly turned against any person. The techniques of social media are getting increasingly sophisticated in hijacking and consuming the social capital of others.

Green Marketing

It does not take long to see that the marketing professions are defining the social media space regardless of what anyone says about user-generated content.  The danger is that social media will become just as unsustainable as the economy that it replaces.  People will soon lose the ability to produce the currency that the media demands to support itself.

Ban advertising

t would be high temple sacrilege for any social media monetization strategist to suggest that advertising of any kind must be banned.  Well, not exactly, but the objective of advertising can be redefined if there were a means to do so.

The only sustainable monetization strategy (of which there are terribly few current examples) are the deployment of social media applications that empower people to discover their own individual talents, to pursue what they are naturally best at and enjoy doing most – while also eliminating the clutter and irrelevant messages that distracts them from their personal life goals.

This means that brands should communicate more and not less.  They should identify, educate, and promote the talents and abilities of a million customers instead of 1 superstar athlete or celebrity.

The proverbial sports analogy:

Advertisers should sit in the bleachers and cheer on their favorite customer, but they should not be in the game, blowing the whistle, or running the scoreboard.  Let them pay admission, see my logo, and buy my overpriced beer.  Let them sell to each other on their own dime – but under no circumstances should they be allowed on the field, in the schools, or in the home without explicit and expressed permission of the customer.

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The Fundamental Flaw of NAFTA

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On January 1, 2010

In General Information

Leading into 2010, The Ingenesist Project will release a series of videos that specify the construct of the Next Economic Paradigm.  We begin at the beginning.

The following video discusses the flaw in modern globalization market economics that started with the failure of an obscure sub section of NAFTA – the free trade of services. The objective of the Ingenesist Project is to correct a tiny little flaw in market economics. This simple adjustment will result in dramatic change.

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Social Currency 101

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On October 31, 2009

In General Information

Here is a very great video by Scott Stratten explaining social currency.

It is short, it is basic, and it states what should be obvious to everyone. It also states what many of us should repeat to ourselves every single day. It is one of those explanations that has a new and different meaning every time you watch it – if you let it.

I swiped this video because I’ll will be posting a series of articles and interpretations on the subject of social currency and it’s a great place to start. The reasons for organizing social currency are becoming more obvious everyday – as institutional and corporate currencies leave gaps in our communities, people will need to fill these voids with social currencies. Our job as Social Media Practitioners (because nobody else is going to do it) is to develop, construct, and deploy social institutions that support a real time, close proximity markets to exist trading social currency (ref: The Ingenesist Project).

Scott Stratten is the President of Un-Marketing and spends way too much time on Twitter.

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Can Twitter Fuel a Run On Banks?

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On October 30, 2009

In General Information

The Ingenesist Project is retained by corporate clients because we look at the world through a different set of filters. We are looking for possible disruptions on the horizon as far in advance as possible so that our clients can be aware of potential perils and modify their business plans accordingly.

One of our signature assertions is that Money is merely a social agreement – not a federal mandate of a democratic government. People will trade whatever currency they agree to trade. Increasingly, people, empowered by social media can impact the financial system far more that a bunch of Quants peddling CDOs.

People simply do not know how powerful they are.

Suppose someone puts together a Twitter/Facebook campaign for everyone the withdraw their money from a single financial institution who just handed out big bonuses? At best, those bonuses will have to be recalled to keep the doors open. At worst, people will find an alternate currency to store the “value” that is destroyed by a bank run. Virtual Currency? Admittedly, it’s far-out, but we need to keep our eyes on these trends because once started, they move very very fast. That’s why they call it a “Run”

Is this scenario really possible? Read on…..

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