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Illumio to Launch Social Network Advice Software
hdtv writes "The New York Times is reporting that Palo Alto-based Illumio will soon try to figure out the experts among your social network with a new online service." From the article: "Illumio is not a search engine, like Google or Yahoo. The system works by transparently distributing a request for information on questions like "Who knows John Smith?" and "Are Nikon digital cameras better than Olympus?" to the computers in a network of users. The questions can then be answered locally based on a novel reverse auction system that Illumio uses to determine who the experts are."
That does seem very odd. Of further note: the "service" is based on an application that requires Windows XP. Though I imagine it would run under Linux w/ Wine, the default assumption seems to remain that only Windows users are experts. By excluding users of *BSD, Linux, OS X and other OSs, they are dramatically reducing the size of their network, which seems like would only negatively impact the entire project. If they're serious about building a social network, they should either design the frontend to their service in (X)HTML, which has clients under any OS that I can care to name, or they should write versions of the app for all major operating systems at the least. Even using a VM framework like Java or .NET would be better than just leaving all but your pet OS out in the cold.
#define DRM chmod 000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet_oracle
At the moment it sounds like vaporware- no links to the website, and google returns no results for illumino. Tacit Software's website shows nothing except some collaboration software for buisnesses. Hard to say if something is promising or not if you can't look at the thing.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
This illustrates an important point about the internet in general. It enables people to only mingle with those similar to them, which is a shame because my most enriching experiences come from a diverse range of different people, coworkers, family, none technically literate. If we are permitted to choose everything we encounter, then life becomes boring and you lose perspective unless you throw in a "surprise me" or two.
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
What does google trends has to say about /. vs digg?
Sounds like a great way to spread disinformation.
;)
Want the answer for "Is there WMDs in Iraq" to be "yes"? Just get enough "experts" saying so.
Want the answer for "Do most scientists thing Global Warming is real?" to be "No", get enough "experts" to say so.
"Are violent video games linked to kids murdering people?" The gut answer is "yes", and I'll bet that's what the expert reply will be.
The list can go on and on. When you live in a society where there are only two sides "your side" and the "wrong side", people will defend their believes to the bitter end. They will spend vast amounts of time obfusticating the truth, giving the perception that the general concensus is unknown or even in their favor.
You only have to SOUND like you know what you are talking about, and most people will think of you as an expert. Especially if their views match your gut feeling.
I'm very skeptical it will work, but I look forward to playing with the service (and of course to make sure my side, the right side "wins"!
Perhaps they can use some kind of trust and reputation assessment tool. If you look at some papers on the http://www.springerlink.com/(wrwksw55m1sbuk55j3laz 1yi)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&bac kto=issue,3,6;journal,4,38;linkingpublicationresul ts,1:102852,1subject , there are some interesting approaches which have been proposed to validate systems of autonomous agents. I don't think it would be much of a problem to use them to validade people's opinions.
Of course, a high-level of collusion can jeopardise the system, but I remember having read that even in that case their reliability can be assessed based on who agrees with whom, in which case you will see pockets of people with 0 reliability (these people can then be banned from the system).
If that's what they are proposing, it would be a nice change on how information is gathered using the internet, because as it is, I am always suspicious of those product review sites.
www.meneguzzi.eu/felipe