John Seely Brown's philosophy: A whole new social capital

Here are my comments about the ideas presented by John Seely Brown as seen in this inspiring video.

The idea is wonderful: to be recognized not by what you wear or by what you own, your reputation is not founded not on the wealth you have accumulated but by what you have created and shared with others. Consider your participation in the network world as your social capital, and the benefits it gives to others as your major contribution to life! Sounds great, perhaps a little utopian or socio-globalist, a socio-constructed network for the benefit of mankind. I believe some free and open source information are already participating and helping large chunks of population. All the Wall Street vultures afraid of regulations in the banking system aren't building much in terms of social network capital, that's for sure !
Coming back to Brown's ideas, it is hardly utopian to hope for such generous contributions; books, music, scientific studies, research papers are now shared on the web, available for all cultures. It is absolutely fantastic, and indeed, I find that Mr. J.S. Brown's humanistic attitude is worth praising and a model to follow.
However, it mustn't be forgotten that most of our life, for better or worse, is lived in reality. Not with FB friends, or bloggers or virtual twitterers, but within a real-life social network, composed of real caring friends, real family close and extended. Whatever a person has achieved in his or her professional life, it seems to me that the true value of a personal life, the important thing, is not what you have shared on the web, but what you have done for humans surrounding you. Another objection to Brown's philosophy is the vacuous nature of what constitutes much of the web chatter. Unfortunately, many citizen’s participation on the web remains in the realm of gossip, adult restricted voyeurism or even overt racism and hateful criticism on many hate blogs.
Lastly, Corporatist goals are menacing the free network. Ning for example is now charging fees. Mario Asselin informed us of this news: "Ning Fails at Free Social Networking".