Kin – great to hear from you, and very much looking forward to catching up in person as soon as we can.

Transactions within digital services are an aspect to this collection of ideas that I simply hadn’t considered! But you are absolutely right concerning the value inherent (and increasingly, measured) within access to particular areas of activity within the data created by an individuals’ interaction with resources, tools and networks. I think as we leave the madness of value inherent in big data (“here’s all the things dkernohan has done on the internet, ever”) we move to the ability to sell aspects of the data at prices optimised by interest (“here’s data on the one time dkernohan spent 40 minutes looking a digital pianos”). In a scholarly sense, it would be possible to monitor and optimise the time I spent doing things of benefit to various parties, rather than to the general culture of academe.

This is ringing a faint block-chainy bell as well, but that’s not a rabbit hole I’m ready to go down.