Enthusiasm has grown, in recent years, for a movement that is best summed up by the term ‘Gamification’. At its best, gamification seeks to make the world a better place by making life more engaging, more fun and more rewarding. At its worst, it is a cynical papering over of harsh realities with shallow game mechanics.

I must confess that I have always had a bit of a pessimistic streak running through most of my worldview. The world was in trouble, and getting worse. Now, thanks to the appropriately titled work by Matt Ridley, I have started thinking that maybe things won’t turn out so bad, after all.

Right now, you and I are being watched. Google Analytics is recording every visit to this blog, including yours. Google has also read this posting, and all my other postings, adding them to the great big blog in the skyclouds. You and I, by our simple clicks, have generated a small trove of data that will need to be analyzed by algorithms processing millions and billions of similar interactions. The clever people designing these algorithms are the subject of Stephen Baker’s book “The Numerati”.

You have to be someone before you can share yourself.

With these words, Jaron Lanier's self-titled 'manifesto' throws down the gauntlet before those cheering the rise and boundless opportunity opportunity of the so-called web 2.0 movement.