Many readers here will be aware that I’m a fan of the notion of social capital, or as my friend, Tara Hunt puts it, whuffie (borrowing from Cory Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom). Well, last week, I received a deck of Akoha cards. Akoha is a real life game based on the notion of paying it forward. They define Akoha as:
A launchpad for travelling acts of kindness.
This is the crux of the game. 
Akohans play missions, which are acts of kindness, on others. They can be as simple as buying someone a cup of coffee or as significant as organising a blogger dinner. There are also wild cards. And now, there is also the ability for users/players to invent their own missions, which become virtual cards!
The Akoha site has a great comic (what is it with comics as explanatory material lately?) you should check out to get a better feel for what Akoha is all about.
One of the best things about the game is the great feeling you get when playing a mission. It’s a very pleasurable thing to do. And the reaction in the recipients is equally fantastic — Scott, Lincoln and Beth, who all received cards from me today all expressed real delight at the activity and the concept behind Akoha.
If you’re already on Akoha, or get a card from me or someone else, connect up!
Nov 19, 2008 @ 01:05:27
Hi Trib,
As I mentioned on twitter, we’re all very excited to see the level of fun and altruism that is hitting our cousins down under (we are based in Montreal, Canada). When we first launched a few months ago, we had a mere vision of being able to bring Akoha to people from all around the world. The acts of kindness that you are playing on a regular basis is a step in the direction of making this dream come true. Ultimately, Akoha is about *you* and everyone else playing it; you’re all part of a social fabric that, as a whole, has a tangible positive impact in the world. For this, we thank and congratulate you.
Keep spreading the good and have fun doing it!
Nov 19, 2008 @ 01:55:58
I wonder if this will work in forcing people into a f2f network situation.
But then I also ponder will it infact work for communities that don’t have a lot of traveling happening or that don’t have dense population bases, like in Australia, like in Perth. Without the critical mass you will get just pockets of people in the “game”. These pockets will reach a critical plateau and stagnate
Then there is a reliance of the deck order being shipped to the recipient. Take too long on that and they will loose interest. It will be interesting to see if the founders have really through through all the ifs and buts on this one.
Nov 19, 2008 @ 16:07:16
I came in late to the conversation last night but it sounded good fun and having read the above you can totally imagine it catching on. Will be interesting to see the progress.
Also, I think the comic explanations are a hangover from the launch of Google Chrome.