10.22 · reputation
1. Please read the papers and write an essay addressing the following questions: How can we compare online reputation systems, in which the information about the subject is attached to the subject, with gossip based reputation systems, in which the information about the subject passes through a social network, but is not part of the subject? Can we design a network/gossip based system for online communities that would overcome some of the ebay style system drawbacks? How can we model the difference between the implicit and explicit social sanctioning?
2. Online dating sites have become extremely popular - market researchers estimate that 40 million people visited these sites in the month of August alone. In terms of reputation and networks, they are very interesting. First, the people on the sites are connecte to each other, but as a series of dyadic connections, not a network. Second, as they interact with each other, they build up a personal store of infromation about each other that woudl be of great interest to others on the site, but there is no mechanism for them to share this information and more importantly, no motivation for them to do so. To think about how these sites (and other similar structures, such as collaboration finders for employees in large corporations, etc.) might evolve, first sketch a model of this (non)network and describe how it differs from a typical network. Then, think about where the information about people in the network resides - and where it would be valued. What sorts of systems might be used to effect the flow of this information. How would this change the dynamics of the site?
Please submit the URL of your critique and sketch online by Tuesday evening.