Measuring social capital

Ross Mayfield has an intriguing article about using network metrics about the number of connections in a network to value social capital.
I think there is an insight here, but I’m still puzzling over the concept.
The concept of valuation raises a few key questions:
* value to whom?
* is there any meaningful medium of exchange between levels?
A peer-to-peer file-sharing network is very valuable to end-users, but (as currently implemented), reduces value for broadcast distributors. (I think there are plenty of things that broadcast distributors could do to take advantage of p2p instead of suing customers, but that’s a whole ‘nother story)
I’m represented by two senators, shared with 18 million residents of Texas. I have a small number of close friends. Those types of relationships aren’t fungible.
In a money economy, you can say that two pairs of shoes have the same value as a single electric lawnmower.
Is there an analogous way to value different types of social relationships?

2 thoughts on “Measuring social capital”

  1. Blogroll as Social Logic

    Recently I set about creating a blogroll. For the uninitiated, a blogroll is a collection of links on the home page of a weblog that point to sites that are somehow related. They serve several purposes, they direct readers to the sites that are importa…

  2. Blogroll as Social Logic

    Recently I set about creating a blogroll. For the uninitiated, a blogroll is a collection of links on the home page of a weblog that point to sites that are somehow related. They serve several purposes, they direct readers to the sites that are importa…

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