Paying for community.

I think one of the things we’re going to see on the rise from here on is people paying for community access. That is, paying to be part of a group of people that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

One of the main takeaways I had from reading the Futurica Trilogy by Alexander Bard and Jan Söderqvist was that the new currency is network. If you’re able to build a network of people around you, with the same values as yourself, you’re going to be all right. They make the case that money is always going to come around, and people in power know that it will. Instead, they focus on building relationships, and take advantage of the internet to do so.

The problem for people outside of their desired networks is that they have a tough time accessing the networks. There’s no way in if you don’t already know someone on the inside. And the network gatekeepers, the people who have the most connections to the most different networks, are usually pretty busy with the networks already.

So, if you’re a gatekeeper there’s an opportunity for you to capitalise off the work you’ve done to make and maintain all of the connections. You can charge people for accessing the other people that are in.

Now, as a consumer there’s a possibility for you to get access to those groups. And done well, it’ll create a bunch of value both for the network and for yourself.