Live at #PWWCBA: Metrics Magic and Social Currency

"Metrics Magic: Stop Guessing and Start Measuring your Requirements Practices" with Bradford J. Sandler PMP, Executive Project Manager, IBM Software Group Rational started off the afternoon in The New Era of Social Communication, Leadership & Collaboration track.

Sandler works with the Jazz team at IBM. According to the Jazz site, "Jazz is an initiative to transform software and systems delivery by making it more collaborative, productive and transparent, through integration of information and tasks across the phases of the lifecycle."

One interesting aspect Sandler mentioned briefly was the idea of  social currency being built up as users of a collaborative product digitally compliment their coworkers for providing useful information. In addition to actually allowing employees to easily access the assets (such as educational materials, documentation or presentations) they need more easily and conveniently  to accomplish a task, this social level of feedback provides both positive reinforcement and a metric for evaluation. Would you consider implementing a system like that at your company? Are there any disadvantages to a "reward" system like this?