The result of the new economics is that people are often paid for their attention, implicitly or explicitly. They get to see television free in return for watching commercials. Their magazines and newspapers are subsidized or supplied free by advertisers. Nowadays bus shelters, baseball stadiums, and even those little refresher towelettes on airlines such as Lufthansa are supported by advertisers eager for your attention.

You are also rewarded with content according to the "quality" of attention you can provide. That is, advertisers want to know who you are and how likely you are to buy the products or services that your attention is being drawn to. That's why they ask you to fill in those little forms with everything from household income to ZIP code (which tells a lot more about you than you might suspect). Alternatively, if you can influence other people who might buy, or if you're a visible opinion-maker in politics, you're also a promising target for everything from magazines t ofree produce samples. (If you're a sports-clothes maker, just think of the value of having Bill Clinton appear in your brand of jogging shorts.)

While terrestrial governments are natural monopolies in their own territories, cyberspace governments compete. Terrestrial governments get overthrown when things get too bad; cyberspace governments simply lose citizens, much as a business loses customers. Former members may even go into competition with their old communities. The terrestrial government game is all-or-nothing (despite the possibility of loyal opposition), whereas Net governments an coexist. "Citizenship" is voluntary.

A Net-based government can operate only by consent of the governed. Any Net government must therefore provide its citizens with real benefits if it wants them to stick around. Those benefits may not be just personal goods or services, but rather the broader benefits of a regulatory regime: a clean, transparent marketplace with defined rules and consequences, or a supervised community where children can trust the people they encounter or individuals' privacy is protected.