If you take a look at a book on microeconomics, you'll see a section on bartering. Generally, it will say that the process is fairly inefficient. Hey, that's why societies have invented currencies, right?

This is all true. Yet, for those who are trying to run a business, bartering may be a good thing. Perhaps the biggest reason is that it saves on cash. It also can be a great way to build relationships and perhaps even get new customers.

Around for decades, SCORE is an organization that -- for free -- provides mentors for small business owners. Hey, even top entrepreneurs Bill Gates and Michael Dell got help from mentors. It's crucial.

Well, this week SCORE launched a social network to help with the process. In fact, they formed an alliance with PartnerUp, which has already built its own small business networking platform.

As the dust settles from Google's $1.65 billion purchase of Internet video hub YouTube, serious questions remain. Such as: What on earth were co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen thinking when they had these silly photos taken? The same question could be asked of the founders of Google Inc.(NASDAQ:GOOG), PayPal, Digg and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) after their big payouts. Is it a symptom of striking it rich, or a carefully planned public relations scheme we just don't understand?

You decide: Check out our analysis of what went right with these promotional shots... and what went certifiably wrong.

After review, we must ask: What have we learned? Is it simply that young tech titans will forever be geeks at heart? Or could it be that -- suddenly rich and famous -- they feel the need for self-depreciation, to "keep it real" so-to-speak with the millions who obsessively use their products?

That may be unfair. Instead, we place the blame on the photographers -- these mysteriously esoteric people with an arsenal of bright turtlenecks, cargo pants and Jungle Gyms -- whose sole responsibility is to make sure that our beloved dot com billionaires look... well, not silly.

Then again, who are we to judge? Might one of us become unbearably silly in front of the camera, like Hurley and Chen did recently in front of a TGI Friday's, were we to find ourselves with the ability to purchase five -- that's right -- five Cadillac Escalade SRX Crossovers? Possibly. Though not in front of a Friday's.

B. Brandon Barker is the author of the novel Operation EMU.