Virtual Capital

Virtual capital is a concept that tries to capture the value of the non-material resources and skills one possesses to navigate their way through the Social Web.  Virtual capital is made up of technical and personal resources.  Technical resources are those related to the competence with which one uses the software of social media, understanding the language of the technology, and the ability to transfer technical skills from one application to another through logic.  Personal resources are those related to the networking aspects of the Social Web, reflexive virtual identity management, and the ability to form meaningful relations of trust with others online.

Virtual capital is contextual, that is it can only be generated within the Social Web, or Web 2.0.  Likewise, virtual capital has the most value within the Social Web.  It could, however be convertible into other forms of economic or non-economic capital, like human, social, political and cultural capital, depending on an individual’s, or organization’s ability to see the potential of the conversion.

In fact, the virtual capital framework draws from the pre-existing sociological frameworks of social capital, cultural capital, human capital and identity capital, taking the relevant aspects of each and applying them to the “virtual” world.