Hey Portland! How’s your whuffie? Don’t know? Tara Hunt may be able to help

That’s right, Portland. I asked how your whuffie was doing. Your whuffie. Your… wait a second. Let me step back.

What’s whuffie, you ask? Well according to Wikipedia, “Whuffie is the ephemeral, reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow‘s science fiction novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.”

So what’s that got to do with you? Well, whuffie has also become a way of describing your goodwill—your social media capital, as it were—online and elsewhere in your life. What you give and what you get from your interactions with others.

And no one knows the topic better than Tara “@missrogue” Hunt, who has written the definitive book on the topic, The Whuffie Factor. What’s more she’ll be speaking on the topic in Portland twice this week. So get ready to talk whuffie.

And luckily for you, me, and Marshall Kirkpatrick, Cory’s whuffie-reading internet brain implant doesn’t even come into play.

Tara will be in town for WebVisions where she’ll deliver the Friday keynote “Makin’ Whuffie: Why You Should Raise Social Capital in Online Communities” at 9:00 AM.

In the Web 2.0 world, market capital flows from having high social capital. Without Whuffie you lose your connections and any recommendation you make will be seen as spam, met with negative reactions and a loss of social capital. This workshop will provide the strategic map and specific tactics for success in the lucrative, but strange and elusive world of online communities.

What’s that? You’re not attending WebVisions? Well, sorry your whuffie is going into the… oh I’m only kidding.

Buck up. There’s still another chance to see Tara. Because she’ll also be reading and signing The Whuffie Factor Friday evening at Souk beginning at 7:00 PM.

But wait! There’s more.

You know that I’m a sucker for the book tours. So, I’ve already purchased 10 copies of The Whuffie Factor for Friends of the Florist. And if I have enough whuffie in my account to convince Tara to sign them, I will. And then I’ll send them out to 10 randomly chosen folks.

I would have gotten them out to you before the event, but I just couldn’t get my act together. Kind of like those stickers and pins I still owe you. So, I apologize. But I’ll get them to you after. I promise.

So here’s the plan: 1) Go to WebVisions. 2) Go to Souk on Friday night. 3) Wait with bated breath by your mailbox to see if you’re one of the lucky 10.

I foresee a great deal of whuffie in your future.

(Image courtesy miss_rogue. Used under Creative Commons.)

Published by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy View all posts by Rick Turoczy