We talk about giving back to the (social media) community as one of the most important parts of the whole ecosystem, if people don’t give back then things start coming apart at the seams. I’m not talking about charitable giving here either, this is also essential and something that the fortunate should do, but the giving back more in the work or friends sense. How do you try to even the balance in your life?
Think about all the answers in community-powered forums (the WordPress forums come to mind immediately), Twitter, blog posts, all the times when people answer the call from often total strangers for a little help. Sometimes it’s just “Yeah, the best app to do that is…”, sometimes it’s fixing a problem, sometimes just moral (or immoral, your choice) support. When the call comes over the wires … what do you do?
I’ve been very, very fortunate in my life. I had great parents, got a great education (part of which was paid for by U.S. taxpayers), I’ve had some real and true mentors who have helped shape me into who I am today. I know that I can’t always answer everyone’s questions, but I can take a shot at it. Often I know who might know and point people in that direction. Most of all, I teach. Teaching at the university level, small workshops, one-on-one gives me such tremendous satisfaction. I’m going to lump all my writing into the teaching category as well. I see my writing as just teaching where my voice is in your head not out loud.
Whuffie is the ephemeral, reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow’s science fiction novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. This book describes a post-scarcity economy: All the necessities (and most of the luxuries) of life are free for the taking. A person’s current Whuffie is instantly viewable to anyone, as everybody has a brain-implant giving them an interface with the Net.
The term has since seen some adoption as a synonym for social capital, including its use in the title of the Tara Hunt book The Whuffie Factor. From Wikipedia.
Tara Hunt wrote about this concept in her book The Whuffie Factor, where you earn standing from what you do (or give) and while you could look at whuffies as just merely social capital, giving back is also beyond that as well. When we give back into the pool of social media we increase its depth and breadth for everyone. The information and answers available become richer, the resources deeper, and maybe makes everything easier to use (okay that might be a stretch).
So how do you like to give back? What can you do to thank the people who helped you? Personally I don’t do it for the thanks, and I’ll just keep teaching regardless, but it’s nice to see people I help helping others. Of course you could argue that one might be more likely help people who are helpful to others…but that’s a topic for an entirely different conversation.
