What is something worth? Obviously some things have more value than others but in a society where most people have everything and the rest have little or nothing at all, how do you accurately define the value of things. What has value? What is important or has “authority”.For some it’s their car, for others it’s their diamond watch. Then there are those who cherish time with their family and then there are those among us who can’t leave home without their Louis Vuitton handbag. Then there are people who dream of clean water and a safe place to sleep.
So what, in all honesty, is a work of art, a painting, worth? What is its value? Now, before you all scramble to Walter Benjamin and dig out that old text of his, I would like to propose something a little different. The Mountain Rescue painting is, to me, priceless as priceless as the Mountain Rescue of Glencoe was to Paul and his mate on the worst Sunday of their life’s. But, I suppose, that doesn’t ring your value system bell because you were not painting the painting with me and neither were you stuck on that bloody mountain thinking you were about to die.
But you can now be part of the “value” of the painting and indeed some of you already are for you have already created value by talking about the painting, Paul and linking to this site. Herein lays the basic model for valuing the painting. If you wish to call this a blog project you may.
The Model.
There will be no auction. None. It will not be sold at Sotheby’s nor will it be sold on Ebay but the painting will be sold, of that you can be sure. There will be only one buyer and one buyer only. The person that agrees to buy the painting enters into a challenge; a battle of wits and yes it is a gamble but one well worth taking. The person who agrees to buy the painting (and remember ALL of the money goes to the Glencoe Mountain Rescue) agrees to buy the painting at value on the 1st July 2007.
How we calculate the value.
There is a rather clever little algorithm that calculates what your blog is worth (the web page you are reading is called a blog) and it’s based on how Technorati rates your site. Technorati does this by tracking how many other blogs (multiple links from a single blog don’t count) link to your’s and Dave Carlson has come up with a widget that tells you what your blog is worth. So apparently this blog is worth $10,726.26 (US Dollars). That’s $10K of link love and conversation. But is the painting worth $10K? Maybe, maybe not. But that would be too easy, way too easy and people we want a challenge don’t we? And here’s how we do it:
We take the value of the blog on the 1st of July 2007 and divide it by the date of the Mountain Rescue; the 4th of March 2007 = 43.07. So that means, that of today (11th May 2007) the value of the painting is $249.04 (US Dollars) and that’s what the buyer would have to pay. The more conversation, the more discussion the more links to this blog means that the value of the painting goes up. Simple really. If we had as many links as Seth Godin the painting would be worth $105,594.01 (US Dollars), which would be kind of useful.
The rules.
- There is no auction but a single buyer
- The buyer agrees to buy the painting at the value, based on the model described above, on the 1st of July 2007.
- Every single blog or person registered as a “linker” by Technorati will be documented in a certificate that remains with the painting for all time. Without the certificate the painting looses its value and is worth nothing.
- Marcus Brown (The Dead Artist) and Paul Colman receive absolutely no money as a result of the selling of the painting.
- The final payment (value) is paid in full to the Mountain Rescue organisation of Glencoe.
- The blog “the dead artist” ceases to exist as of the 1st of August 2007.
The Buyer,
Negotiations are underway as to who the buyer will be and I hope to make an announcement some time next week and believe me, if we pull this off it will be amazing and very, very exciting.
Of course, if you are up to the challenge you can always get in touch but remember it’s a huge risk. But it’s a risk for a good cause.
How does that sound? Now, be good boys and girls and talk about it, link it and drive the value up.
