I used to belong to a UK-based pre-web social network back in 1999. Quite a few of my closest friends are people I met on there, back in the day – I went to a play with two of them only last night. But I haven't befriended anyone I've bumped into on any of the more recently popular MySpace-esque social networks. I assume that's because back in 1999 only people like me used any sort of online social network. Now everyone uses online social networks, so they're just not very effective filters.

The question of what constitutes virtual currency is an interesting one. Attention is part of it. Constant innovation and feature set plays a big role in there.

Based on personal research at YouTube, it's clear that creators see an exchange going on. In return for their creation of content, they expect things from YouTube in terms of site service (read as not necessarily revenue streams). So in that respect they don't view YouTube as a free service that they should be thankful for. Instead, they are of the position that YouTube needs to continue to provide technology innovation or they will take their content somewhere else. In some respects this has been at the heart of a back and forth between YouTube and LiveVideo.

In fact, there is a belief that sites like YouTube are simply enablers that made it first to a good idea. Ning has definitely done that. Now it will be interesting to see where things play out.

Doesn't this statement rather gloss over the way value is increasingly expressed online in terms of attention and virtual currencies rather than cash?

The Attention Economy is becoming ever more fluid and less granular, making it hard for individuals or small communities to trap enough value in their online presence to monetize it significantly. Even leading blogger (and, effectively, community gatekeeper) Guy Kawasaki disclosed recently that his AdSense revenue was really rather modest (2,436,117 yearly page views yielding a princely $3,350).

It seems to me that the balance of financial benefit from online content creation may yet shift even further away from the creators and towards the big content re-aggregators.

The value accruing to individuals and even communities is huge, when measure in terms of personal and shared brand, knowledge and network. Just don't expect a steady flow of cash unless you happen to create the next Chad Vader.

A good job, then, that most of us blog and Ning for the love of it!