Musings on Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Tuesday, July 08, 2003Xenoequity
Jack Ricchiuto has offered up a new term: xenoequity.
Valdis and G challenged me yesterday to wordsmith a term to describe the value derived from diverse and unique social networks. It goes to Valdis' notion, now celebrated internationally in his network software, that our greatest network potential is in the second circle of those known by people (in our inner circle) we know.
Xeno, from the Greek for stranger or someone different from us, and equity, suggesting the value gained from accidental or intentional exchange, combines to form xenoequity. As in, those who cultivate high levels of xenoequity tend to have unique opportunities for influence and resourcefulness.
Interesting suggestion, though the term doesn't exactly roll off my tongue. Notwithstanding the theoretical implications of the small world phenomenon (i.e., "six degrees of separation"), Valdis Krebs has done much to demonstrate that in real social networks, most of the action is with friends and friends-of-friends. After all, the real world requires things like functional trust and a reasonable expectation of reciprocity. Even if our effective social reach isn't as long as we might hope, most of us don't do a very good job of managing the business relationships we do have. As Jan Twombly and Jeff Shuman would point out, if we approached our business friends-of-friends networks as "customers," we're more likely to be able to develop purposeful relationships that help us achieve our objectives, in turn.
