We are increasingly living in a space of flows...where networking has taken on a virtual character. There is real power in it and I myself am part of three social / business networks, or is it 4, well actually five. I find them important and I do sometimes feel guilty about not giving them the prompt personal attention that they deserve. I could spend half a day maintaining my virtual self so I too frequently put it off. Are virtual contacts worth less...can you even put it in those terms? A contact is a contact; it's only the platform and frequency that has changed. I need a virtual Personal Assistant. Someone who can administer and maintain my virtual networks, answer social messages and update my blogs with wit and images. Someone like a secretary of the last century who gives me a smile and a coffee and goes off into the virtual sea of networking to flag down the ships and contacts of information that I find valuable. Someone I can trust, how much of myself should I turn over, could I even learn from myself? Will my PA know what's better for me? And could I even have virtual representatives (VR's) of myself that go out into the physical world to meet my virtual friends who, virtually speaking, don't know me physically. It would be the physical manifestation of the cut and paste function. Could trusted agencies of virtual PA's develop from this new communication model? Is there something ethically wrong about this? In a way I am my own brand, and my PA and or VR's are my brand champions and that makes me a brand manager. I think for our generation this will remain controversial. But the kids coming up and their kids will be honored if they could come as far to meet a level three VR, that could be one brand champion before the brand him or herself. It could be like in the mid-evil days, you can't just meet the king outright, you'd have to lobby and build up prestige in the courts and salons. Instead today's society is a space of flows: a phantasmoria of collage identities, temporary and fluid into our own de-traditionalized personal culture.
