Like a straight guy on the TV’s Next Top Model, time was rare this weekend. A large part of that had to do with the alpha release of the whuffie tracker, the first in a series of tools for the emerging reputation economy. Before we get to the software a bit of background is necessary.

The term ‘whuffie’ is a numeric representation a person’s standing with their peers. It comes from Cory Doctorow’s acclaimed science fiction novel ‘Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom’ (free ebooks of the novel in a variety of formats are available for download). It closely models other theoretical post-scarcity economies (the first portion of Charlie Stross’s novel, Accelerando – also a free download – comes to mind). In worlds in which physical demands are (mostly) met there still remain constraints on the economic system; reputation and standing being chief among them.

Many knowledge workers already feel the effects of such reputation economies. Who gets invited to FooCamp, who is chosen to speak at the conferences, who gets picked to write a book – it’s all about how a given community confers status upon those who have demonstrated skill and/or created value for others. It is alternately called buzz, fame, and/or good will.

Hearing that whuffie is a numeric value often snaps people into a conventional currency model; cash is a limited thing, to give some to you I must subtract some from my stash, and that a dollar given from me is worth the same amount as a dollar from Bill ‘Bling Bling’ Gates. Whuffie doesn’t behave in this manner, however. For example, I have many different subsets of friends. I may be well regarded among the blowhards for this blog. I simultaneously may be dismissed (or unknown) among fantasy football owners for my poor performance thus far. A dollar is a dollar and the value doesn’t change among the groups I associate with. Whuffie does, however, correctly reflecting the esteem one’s peers place on the individual within the context of personal. Larry Ellison (Oracle’s CEO and chief A-Hole) has lots of money but low whuffie. Linus Torvalds has high whuffie among technical crowds but low or non-existent whuffie among my grandparents.

The whuffie tracker is the first step toward a distributed reputation economy. It runs as a Skype add-on that monitors individual’s conversations. One can only give whuffie after they’ve received whuffie. Users can associate a series of topics (via tags) that they’re knowledgeable in. When a question is asked of the system, the software (represented in one’s Skype contacts as the ‘Bitchun Butler’) attempts to match the question with someone who is most able to answer it. Provide a satisfactory answer and whuffie will be given. It is not just the recipient who benefits – because of a powerful mathematical model those who have strong relationships also benefit; in other words, people are rewarded for close relationships with helpful, insightful individuals.

Throughout this weekend I had numerous conversations with the developer. He’s got a great grip on how the project needs to be grown but needs help. If you’re a developer who’s interested in creating a bold new frontier go to Joe Petviashvili’s blog, read how to get started, check out the SourceForge repository, and start coding. All you have is whuffie to gain.