Skills: noneConcepts: user contributed content, user ratings and reviews, user reputation, critical thinking

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Rating and reputation

Where does this topic fit?

• Internet concepts– Applications– Technology– Implications

• Internet skills– Application development– Content creation– User skills

Ellis Cohen, Open Software Foundation, 1994

1995

Who won? Why?

Versus

Do you recognize this man?

Simple, one click rating

Sharing in social networks

What is wrong here?

What is wrong here?

What is wrong here?

Click after thinking about this feedback

Do you trust the rater?

Man with a good reputation

Wikipedia –four dimension ratings

Wikipedia – I am an expert because …

Fake?Yes No

Review

What do consumers use?

Summary

Fake?Yes No

Review

Self-study questions

1. Wikipedia pages change constantly. What if a page starts out bad then improves over time. How might they deal with ratings becoming stale?

2. Go to the survey on the ways in which consumers use online ratings (http://bit.ly/mUicya) and find a way in which you are atypical . Explain the discrepancy.

3. Think back to the last online purchase you made – what Internet sources, if any, influenced your decision?

4. We have focused on consumer decisions – do the same considerations arise in evaluating political claims?

5. Give an example of a political statement – perhaps a newspaper column or a blog post that you found online – that you disagreed with. Did you accept its accuracy? Did you make an effort to check its accuracy?

6. Give an example of a political statement – perhaps a newspaper column or a blog post that you found online – that you agreed with. Did you accept its accuracy? Did you make an effort to check its accuracy?

7. We focused on user’s reputations. Are there examples of ratings other than user reputations on the Internet? (Hint – check the Amazon site).

Resources

• Time Magazine story at the time of Amazon’s initial stock offering:m http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986177,00.html

• A brief history of Amazon: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/businesses/A-F/Amazon-com.html

• Many links to information on fake reviews: http://www.cs.uic.edu/~liub/FBS/fake-reviews.html

• IEEE Spectrum interview of Myle Ott, author of an algorithm to detect fake reviews and other lies (audio and transcript): http://bit.ly/osgP7w.

• Explanation of Wikipedia’s feedback tool used in rating articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Article_Feedback_Tool

• Cone consumer behavior survey: http://bit.ly/mUicya• IEEE Spectrum interview of Cornell University professor Trevor Pinch on

the abuse of online review and recommendation systems: http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/geek-life/tools-toys/can-you-trust-an-amazon-review/