As some of you may know from previous posts, I am involved in the closed beta test for a new social networking site, MyCube. One of the features I tested for the first time today may actually have some implications for bands, artists, photographers, bloggers, or any other person with content to share and I have to say it is a pretty cool concept that may really differentiate MyCube when or if it goes mainstream.

The concept I speak of is that of the Social Exchange. MyCube employs a virtual currency called Cubes. People who post content can charge other users to view or download their content. The way it works is as a user posts, they can make it free or they can set a price (in cubes). There is an indicator on the post appearing in your feed to let viewers know it is for sale. The screen shot below shows a post in my feed. The green indicator to the right lets me know that I paid. Once I have paid, I can re-access that content to view (in this case a dive video) and download it in a few different formats. So now, that provider has added 50 cubes to their bank while I decrement 50 cubes from mine. You can’t trade out for legal tender yet but you will eventually be able to buy cubes and cash out cubes to real currency.

It is certainly cool that this could mean real money for artists and content creators but I also think the idea of just trading these tokens for each other’s content - perhaps never exchanging for real cash - is a more intriguing idea. Using credits to facilitate sharing is a way to avoid some of the stigma and disposability that comes with free content. It is hard to say yet what is a good dollar-to-cube ratio but if structured well, cubes could be a great way to introduce a micro-payment strategy. For instance 10 cubes could be a penny … or 50 cubes could be a a quarter. You could potentially charge less than a cent to view content. Who would scoff at parting with half a penny to see a video or read a good blog post? With a large enough dedicated audience, that half a penny adds up. I really love the idea but it hasn’t hit the social sweet spot yet to make it a viable option for many artists and content providers. MyCube could change that. I don’t know if that’s what they’re thinking but I repost these observations on MyCube and I know they are interested in the buzz.

Here’s the feed:

Here in the upper left of the image is my eWallet showing my balance. Users in the beta were awarded 5K cubes upon joining:

As a musician and artist, I generate digital content that could be of value and so it may seem obvious that I would be interested in something like this. What I don’t think is as obvious to many of you is that as social networking participants, all of you create and share a tremendous amount of content, the value of which you may not be aware. You don’t need to be a pro to post a great photo that other people may want. User-generated content is making people (other than the actual contributors) very rich. The people that operate lolcats have at least 20 other similar meme-driven sites completely supported by the clever images and captions contributed by users.

There is more value to your casual ramblings and chance encounters with pets, cursing dads, auto-corrected texts, and other stuff than you or really any of us probably know. MyCube appears to be one of the first social networks positioned to discover what it is all worth. I’ll pay a few cubes to read the sh*t your dad says and you can pay a few cubes to hear my song.