Joseph S. Fulda, CSE, PhD 701Wbst 177th Street #21, New ~rk, NY10033 fidda @acre.org;"hup://www, cdj~.org/eight,html Copyright © 2000, Joseph S. Fulda A Web-based Model of the Market and the Marketplace of Ideas Quite by accident, I stumbled upon a Web site that serves as a model of both the market and the marketplace of ideas: http://www.epinions.com. Members--anyone can become a member just by signing u p - - r e a d the opinions of others, called epinions, on many topics, but mostly on products and services that they have used and about which they wish to share their thoughts and experiences. These reviews are then rated by other members on a four-point scale. Members who find value in a particular review may choose to be notified of further reviews by the author by e-mail (and may discontinue this at any time), and may decide to "trust" the member. A member's Web of TrustO places reviews by people he trusts, and those that they trust, etc. more prominently among all the reviews in the category. Thus a person with enough trusted and distrusted members in his W O T will eventually only see reviews that he would find
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