Penguicon adopts a Whuffie Economy

Now, I do believe that Cory Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is required reading for Disney geeks, especially if you also happen to be a sci-fi or literary geek (or, heavens forbid, both). So, I was tickled when I checked Doctorow’s blog today and found the news that Penguicon is adopting the currency model described in that very book. From craphound.com:

Matt sez, “The science fiction and software event Penguicon is converting its volunteer rewards system into Whuffie, the reputation economy from Cory Doctorow’s science fiction novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. The attendance badges and currency will use a barcode system to track individual work throughout multiple years. It is described in this post to the Penguicon blog.”

And hey, if you’re looking for something good to read, and don’t mind taking a break from that all-consuming Disney obsession, you might want to pick up Eastern Standard Tribe, which I read last week during my travels, and is especially appropriate for those of us who keep track of which GMT offset we’re in, develop Crackberry Thumb, occasionally engage in l33tsp34k, and kick ourselves hard for missing the OSI model question on the Delta in-flight trivia game. (An aside to Mr Broke Hoedown: Yes, I am still pissed off about that.)

Or, if you just can’t take a moment away from feeding the Disney jones, there’s always Realityland, which is also darn good. But if you’re that deep into the addiction, I’ll bet you read it waaaay before me.