How do you reconcile openness and secrecy?

Written by

Warning: this content is older than 365 days. It may be out of date and no longer relevant.

Here’s another serious topic for discussion: how do you, in social media, reconcile openness and secrecy?

Let me give you an example from World of Warcraft. One of the side parts of the game (a very big side part for me) is the in-game economy. You make gold by creating stuff, by killing stuff, or by trading with other players for their stuff. In the game, there are “secrets” – great spots for earning gold through killing things or great tactics to use in the Auction House (an in-game eBay of sorts).

These secrets are powerful, capable of generating hundreds or thousands of gold a day, compared to the average player who earns perhaps a few dozen gold a day. The catch is this: their value decreases in direct proportion to the number of people who know and use the secrets, because the server’s economy is a zero sum game – if I know the secret and you learn it, at best our earning potential is halved, unless you’re truly incompetent.

There are lots of similar examples in real life – in the world of search engine optimization, Google Juice is more or less a fixed sum game. If I learn a powerful SEO tactic, the more people who know it, the less value it has.

Contrast this with the social media world of sharing everything (from the mundane to the powerful), openness, and transparency. If you share something of value, your social currency increases among those you share it with.

Here’s the questions I have for you: how do you value a secret vs. the social currency earned for sharing the secret? Which is more valuable to you, and in what context?

Please leave your thoughts in the comments. Yesterday’s discussion was especially good to read, so I look forward to hearing less from me and more from you.

Comments

11 responses to “How do you reconcile openness and secrecy?”

June 17, 2009

glecharles

Secrets, in this context, are like ideas; the real value lies in what you do with them, the execution. Even in your zero-sum examples, it still comes down to execution. In social media, as in many other areas of life, I believe openness definitely trumps secrecy.

Reply
June 17, 2009

Vlad Vacariu

I would only reveal the secrets to certain people I trust not to tell everyone. If I tell the secret to people who go and tell everyone they know then the secret's value decreases significantly. If I tell only certain trusted people and they only tell certain people then the secret's value will not decrease as much. By the time the value decreases so much that it is useless I will discover another secret which I might not tell anyone. Only certain secrets I will reveal to certain people but I will not reveal all.

Reply
June 17, 2009

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Secrets, in this context, are like ideas; the real value lies in what you do with them, the execution. Even in your zero-sum examples, it still comes down to execution. In social media, as in many other areas of life, I believe openness definitely trumps secrecy.

Reply
June 17, 2009

Christian Jacobsen

Secrets really don't exist. There are “things that most people don't know yet” and “things that are well known”. Everything in the first column moves rapidly and inexorably into the second column.

So spending any time on protecting secrets is a waste of time.

Using your WoW auctions example, would it be more beneficial to you to capitalize on your “secret” knowledge of the auction trick until it was rendered useless because too many people know it? Or, would it be better to tell 200 friends about the trick in exchange for 200 other tricks?

Like glecharles says in his comment, secrets are ideas. Ideas are information. And information wants to be free.

Being open and honest should pay bigger results over time, and I expect that would prove true using any measuring stick you choose.

Reply
June 17, 2009

Vlad Vacariu

I would only reveal the secrets to certain people I trust not to tell everyone. If I tell the secret to people who go and tell everyone they know then the secret's value decreases significantly. If I tell only certain trusted people and they only tell certain people then the secret's value will not decrease as much. By the time the value decreases so much that it is useless I will discover another secret which I might not tell anyone. Only certain secrets I will reveal to certain people but I will not reveal all.

Reply
June 17, 2009

Stuartfoster

Extremely interesting Chris. I'm damn fascinated by this even…mainly because it plays to your strengths of explaining economic concepts/tenets to marketing/pr people like myself. I actually get what you are talking about (trust me that's a win).

Reply
June 17, 2009

Christian Jacobsen

Secrets really don't exist. There are “things that most people don't know yet” and “things that are well known”. Everything in the first column moves rapidly and inexorably into the second column.

So spending any time on protecting secrets is a waste of time.

Using your WoW auctions example, would it be more beneficial to you to capitalize on your “secret” knowledge of the auction trick until it was rendered useless because too many people know it? Or, would it be better to tell 200 friends about the trick in exchange for 200 other tricks?

Like glecharles says in his comment, secrets are ideas. Ideas are information. And information wants to be free.

Being open and honest should pay bigger results over time, and I expect that would prove true using any measuring stick you choose.

Reply
June 18, 2009

Stuart Foster

Extremely interesting Chris. I'm damn fascinated by this even…mainly because it plays to your strengths of explaining economic concepts/tenets to marketing/pr people like myself. I actually get what you are talking about (trust me that's a win).

Reply
June 21, 2009

jlbraaten

At this point I'm just happy to share the things I'm learning with others. Sharing can both build relationships with folks you don't know as well as establish credibility. You'd be surprised who you might be able to teach. I know of one USF Internet Marketing course professor that moved to bit.ly because of a conversation we had.

Reply
June 22, 2009

jlbraaten

At this point I'm just happy to share the things I'm learning with others. Sharing can both build relationships with folks you don't know as well as establish credibility. You'd be surprised who you might be able to teach. I know of one USF Internet Marketing course professor that moved to bit.ly because of a conversation we had.

Reply
June 22, 2009

jlbraaten

At this point I'm just happy to share the things I'm learning with others. Sharing can both build relationships with folks you don't know as well as establish credibility. You'd be surprised who you might be able to teach. I know of one USF Internet Marketing course professor that moved to bit.ly because of a conversation we had.

Reply