Cooperation and the internet


Using the knowledge of others
Yesterday I tried to explain to a friend why I thought LibraryThing was so incredible.

Now I know that most of you don't really care about it, but it is another channel of information. The chances are that all you will see of it will be the booklists in my sidebar.

But it is a great example of pooled information and collective knowledge. It is still developing, but eventually it may have a huge impact.

Let me explain how.

There are other cooperative databases on the net. One of the best is RottenTomatoes.com. RT takes professional reviews and user reviews and puts everything together to give film ratings. Those ratings hold up very well, especially as time goes on and the reviews of the studio plants are watered down. What is left is a fairly accurate idea of if the film is any good or not and whether it is worth your time and money. You aren't paying these people for their opinion, they are choosing to offer it based on their experience with the movie.

No it is not perfect. You aren't going to like every film that is rated "fresh," and there will be some gems that get rated "rotten." But the overall tendency will be to separate the good films from the bad. If you spend a little time, you can ignore most of the hype that surrounds a film.

Another online cooperative database is Wikipedia which has long since become my favorite online reference. You can find everything there from obscure Elizabethan poets to comic book plots. If someone is interested in it, chances are there is an article on Wikipedia. When I was comparing it to Encyclopedia Brittanica over several months, Wikipedia was always more up to date and usually more complete on any given subject. And Wikipedia covers more subjects than the EB.

Again, it is not perfect. There are still the occasional errors. But the great thing about Wikipedia is that you can become a contributer and fix the errors yourself. Of course, you wouldn't be the only contributer, and over time that tends to make things more accurate.

LibraryThing is another cooperative database. Right now as it exists, I can look at other people's libraries who share my interest and see what other books they might have on the subject. I can review the books or not, as I choose. But each small bit of information adds to the cooperative results. That information may be a couple of steps away from being useful to the casual user, but that won't last. Someone will figure out a way to make it better. It already incorporates tags.

In the short run, it may not matter much to you if you are not fascinated by books. But in the long run it will be another channel in the free flow of information. And that will benefit everyone.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Tue - October 4, 2005 at 05:17 AM  Tag


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