Buy & Sell Someone's Real Time With Virtual Tokens

I was randomly noodling on Facebook recently, when Philip Rosedale's head suddenly appeared, in an ad that offered me the chance to buy 10 minutes of Philip's time for some virtual currency. It's an offer on allthis.com, "the 10 minute exchange", which offers to connect you with "the greatest minds, celebrities, and leaders of industry" with virtual tokens you puchase on the site. (Write-up on Mashable here.) You can buy a token to talk with Philip (in this case) for ten minutes, but here's the hook: someone can buy that token from you for a higher bid. "You'll get back what you paid plus 5%," explains the FAQ. "The other 5% go to the person whose time is being traded." So if someone out-bids you, you still get a small commission. Pretty clever way of making celebrity access transparent, while also creating a market that shows how much that person's time is really valued. As for Philip, I checked with him, and this project is not related to his new start-up, Love Machine, or Coffee & Power, which operates on a somewhat similar idea. The founders just asked Philip to put his ten minutes up for auction, and he readily agreed. Now who wants to buy that token to talk with him?

Comments

[Nexii Malthus]

I don't really get it though, the site doesn't explain what you actually get?

Can I talk to them for 10 minutes? What medium? Phone? Chat? Voice? Webcam? Skype? Hangout? Huh?

[Hamlet Au]

I believe it's online or phone if I recall the ad correctly, but you probably gotta create an account to get the full skinny.

[Jo yardley]

The site says;
"You want to spend ten minutes online with this person."

Great idea!
I joined with both my rl business and SL sim owner.
Of course the project isn't very big yet so not too many people i want to talk to are there, but if one is, their time is (still) cheap.
Obama is on there...

Personally I'd love to talk to some tv people about an idea I've got.
Getting a pitch with someone big can be very difficult, but this might help.
Just your hero/idol/whatever and you for 10 minutes or just someone interested in you wanting to ask you about what you do.

Sounds interesting!

I joined.

[Melponeme_k]

If you can't spot the patsy in any confidence trick...then the patsy is YOU.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Ten minutes isn't even enough time to move past the "control the urge to gush" stage into the "act cool about it" stage.

[foneco zuzu]

And its really up do some to decide if those so called "wise or important" are really so.
So a lot of questions and perhaps a new lobby area to work on.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

You know, upon reflection, I like my method of communicating with the rich and famous; bundling my thoughts in little bottles and tossing them into the tempest of the Internet.

There's no guarantee that my opinions will get ten minutes of consideration by anybody who matters... but I know they do sometimes, because I get little notes.

Often they're annoyed by something that I got wrong, or by my sometimes caustic tone, but sometimes they just like the way my mind works and want to tell me so.

And that's cool that money can't buy, to have somebody that you consider important take notice of you just because you had something to say and said it well.

[Shug Maitland]

I wonder if the winner will get past "Hi". Philip does like to hear himself talk!

[Hamlet Au]

It'll be a good learning experience! It's taken me years of interviewing folks to come up with really strong questions that can't be answered with a yes/no and brings up interesting stuff.

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

Heck, I'd give any of you an hour if you are buying the Martinis (dry, shaken, up). You get extra time if it's Tanqueray or Hendricks Gin.

Just spin your ideas and I'll be the best listener you ever met.