BKBUWBRS.RVW   20101203

"Building Web Reputation Systems", F. Randall Farmer/Bryce Glass,
2010, 978-0-596-15979-5, U$39.99/C$49.99
%A   F. Randall Farmer www.buildingreputation.com
%A   Bryce Glass www.buildingreputation.com
%C   103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA   95472
%D   2010
%G   978-0-596-15979-5 0-596-15979-X
%I   O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
%O   U$39.99/C$49.99 800-998-9938 fax: 707-829-0104 nuts@ora.com
%O  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/059615979X/robsladesinterne
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/059615979X/robsladesinte-21
%O   http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/059615979X/robsladesin03-20
%O   Audience i Tech 1 Writing 2 (see revfaq.htm for explanation)
%P   316 p.
%T   "Building Web Reputation Systems"

Well, today is my day for reputation systems.  Not only am I reviewing
(a project that looks not only at the book, but has a past history for
my work) a book on reputation systems, but I also just handed out the
evaluation forms for this week's seminar.

The preface says the reputation systems can help manage user content
on Websites and promises models and a grammar to help build them.

Part one promises a definition and illustration of reputation. 
Chapter one defines reputation as information used to make a value
judgment about an entity.  Value judgment is not defined, except to
say that it could be all kinds of things.  Credit reports are used as
an example (although not more sophisticated models such as futures
markets).  A graphical grammar is supposed to be presented in chapter
two, but the figures are just illustrations (most requiring
significant explanation, some appearing to contradict the explanation)
and the grammar is fairly limited and obvious.

Part two extends the elements and applies examples.  Chapter three
does list some additional items (although the easy quantitative ones
are dealt with much better than the vaguely qualitative),
concentrating on aspects such as the programming for reversible
averages.  Putting the pieces together, in chapter four, seems to
simply involve more calculations about adding up the votes.

Part three turns to actually building your reputation system.  Chapter
four looks at design, concentrating on patterns of creation, decision,
and incentive.  Inputs and entities are noted in chapter six.  The
text becomes more interesting with discussions of how to display and
use reputation, in chapter seven.  The usage aspect is extended in
chapter eight.  Chapter nine examines issues of incorporating,
assessing, and modifying your reputation model.  The final chapter
reprises the content of the book using the example of the Yahoo
Answers system.

If you are building a fairly simple opinion aggregation system, this
work can supply some helpful pointers.  Beyond that, you are pretty
much on your own.

copyright, Robert M. Slade   2011     BKBUWBRS.RVW   20101203