Myclob's Google

 

Google groups, http://groups.google.com, should allow people to classify their "reasons to agree" or "reasons to disagree". Some of these classifications could include, books, websites, or logical arguments that agree or disagree with the original idea.

 

Reasons to agree Reasons to disagree

This would allow Google to run a "Google Duel" of the books that agree or disagree with an idea.

We already have enough information on line. Companies who are able to organize that information will win. Truth can be organized into one big whole. Songs, books, websites, quotes should all be organized into reasons to agree and disagree with every idea.

You could also allow people to classify their submission as:

Apposing interest of those who agree and disagree with the idea.

Apposing principles of those who disagree with the idea.

Best book that agrees with the idea.

Best Book that disagrees with the idea.

Best Song that agrees with the idea.

Best Song that disagrees with the idea.

Best website that agrees with the idea.

Best website that disagrees with the idea.

Common interest of those who agree and disagree with the idea.

Most probable interest of those who agree with the idea.

Most probable interest of those who disagree.

Reasons to agree with the idea.

Reasons to disagree with the idea.

Shared principles of those who agree and disagree with the idea.

Reasons to disagree

 

Einstein said things should be made as simple as possible, but not more simple. Ideas are complicated. Their good books, with valid points, that agree and disagree with different ideas. One should not try and come to a conclusion about what to believe, without having all the facts.

People could abuse the system, by submitting popular books that would receive a high "Google duel" score, thus giving credibility to their side of the argument. These books could have nothing to do with the debate.

Reasons to disagree

 

For each book that is submitted, people would be able to submit reasons to agree or disagree that that book actually supports the main thesis. They would also be able to vote. Books that everyone says that don't support the main thesis, could give negative points to the idea's score.

 

Google Mail

 

I like how Google e-mail into conversation thread.

 

Related Topic: Conversation threads and Discussion groups

 

Decision making algorithm

 

Google could make a decision making algorithm by looking at two opposite ideas, and trying to promote the better idea. Google already, sort of does this, buy deciding which websites are better, and we love them for it. But lets take out the middle man. Lets let Google (or some other search engine) not just organize/promote websites-with-ideas, lets let Google promote specific ideas. For instance I bet that you will get higher ranked pages for the idea that "freedom of speech is good" than "Freedom of speech is bad."

 

Google, or maybe another search engine, could do this well for a number of reasons:

 

Google currently has the best algorithm for figuring out which websites have the most links to them. It is assumed that better websites have more links to them. It is kind of like online democracy or a collective soul of the internet. Google could use this technology to figure out if websites that say "George Bush is an Idiot" or websites that say, "John Carrie is an idiot" have a higher average "Google Rank".

 

Google already has the technology to allow for synonym search. Google could include in it's ranking all of the websites that say, "George bush is an idiot", "George bush is a moron", and so forth.

 

 

Transparency

 

To help maintain a transparent process, you should list the top 10 pages that agree, with and disagree with, the idea.

 

Google Should allow continuous polls, on their discussion boards

 

Some discussion boards allow people to vote on posts. A couple of these discussion boards are the Half Bakery and the Global Ideas Bank. However only Google could take this concept to the next level, because of their expertise in web ranking algorithms, internet usage, and their recent use of user profile development. (OK, maybe E-bay or Amazon could do it, but I would love to see Google do it, because they are so cool).

 

The halfbakery lets you vote for or against an idea. The Global Idea Bank lets you rate an idea on a scale from 1 to 10 with these criteria: Feasibility, Humour, Originality , and Overall.

 

Here are some ideas of how Google could improve on this. Instead of just letting people vote for or against the idea, why not let people post why they are voting for or against the idea. Sure, you say, but people could already do that in a general discussion board.

 

The reasons to agree and disagree should go into pre-arranged holders for such posts specifically mean to store reasons to agree or disagree. This would allow people to vote on which reasons to agree or disagree with an idea are the most valid. This would allow Google to put the best reasons to agree and disagree at the top of their columns. This will allow Google to have a website, where you can instantly and easily see the 10 best reasons to agree and disagree with every position. This will make Google the number one website for debate, for deciding the best course of action, for conflict resolution.

 

This will allow Google to organize information, not just websites. This will allow Google to became a place to go, not just a method of finding other places.

 

This will force different sides of an issue to talk to each other. That way people will not be going to Rush Limbaugh's and Michael Moore's website, where people only talk about the reasons to agree with them. If done right, you can force people to think about the other side's point of view, before letting them post more reasons to agree with their side. This would not be difficult to do. All you have to do is reward people who rate the validity of reasons to agree with their opponents on a scale from one to 10.

 

To do:

 

1. Let people post reasons to agree or disagree to separate columns.

 

2. Let people vote on which reasons are the best.

 

3. Put the ideas that do the best at the top of their columns.

 

4. Continually improve the algorithm that puts the best ideas at the top of the page.

 

 

Of course, this will not be like a discussion, it will be tons better. It won't go on forever. It will be better organized, the topic will not constantly change, and it will allow you to focus on the quality posts, not the post from the crazy people.

 

If you like science you could say it is a survival of the fittest system, where the best reasons to agree or disagree fight it out for the best real-estate (at the top of the page).

 

If you like the book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance, you will appreciate the focus on Quality, not just quantity.

 

If you like the stock market, you can imagine a system where each post represents an idea, who's popularity can be tracked over time. You could build graphs, much like the graphs that represent a stock's performance with relation to time.

 

I could go on forever, but my baby is getting into stuff.

 

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Google has just made its most exciting announcement to date!

 

 

 

For more information go to:

 

 

 

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/putting-crowd-wisdom-to-work.html

 

 

 

I think Robin Hanson also deserves to have his name mentioned, when talking about innovators in Idea Futures. Check out this link.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hanson

 

However, putting crowd wisdom to work should involve more than what any of these individuals advocate.

 

If we really wanted to put crowd wisdom to work we would allow the crowd to post reasons to agree or disagree with different prices (too high, or too low, or $0.33 is right on).

 

These reasons for a higher or lower price would go to separate columns.

 

People could then post reasons to agree or disagree with the reasons. Reasons to agree could be considered a vote for the price. And reasons disagree would be a vote for a lower or higher price.

 

Reasons with more reasons to agree with them, would get a higher rank (just like the Google algorithm, except reasons would take the place of links).

 

This is important for us to do, because if we are going to ever invest money in ideas, we need a good place to investigate an idea’s fundamentals, just like you need to investigate a company’s fundamentals before investing in them. Current debate or discussion groups are simply insufficient.

 

First of all we need a system that promotes good reasons to agree or disagree with a certain price. Current discussion boards or debate forums treat all reasons & ideas the same. They place them in the forum in the chronological order they came in. That would be OK if you were dealing with experts that knew what they were talking about, but online you are dealing with a lot of non-quality opinions. A non-quality opinion is an idea with very few reasons to agree with it, and lots of reasons to disagree with it. But this is a simplification. The real definition of a non quality opinion requires you to put your thinking cap on stick with me for a while.

 

Previously I said, “A non-quality opinion is an idea with very few reasons to agree with it, and lots of reasons to disagree with it. But this is a simplification.” Because of human nature we tend to think of the exception to the rule. The exception to my definition would be an idea with a few very good reasons to agree with it, and lots of poor reasons to disagree with it.

 

This problem can be solved by using an algorithm similar to Google’s web page ranking algorithm. I like to call my algorithm an idea ranking algorithm. My idea ranking algorithm requires a specific format to work, just like Google’s. Google’s page ranking algorithm requires links. It looks at links like a vote, so that it’s like a web page having lots of votes, if it has lots of links to it. And links from web pages with lots of links to it, mean more. My idea ranking algorithm requires a forum in which people can submit reasons to agree or disagree with the idea. And then they can submit reasons to agree or disagree with those reasons. Thus reasons with lots of reasons to agree with them and fewer reasons to disagree with them will carry more weight, similar to WebPages with lots of links to them.

 

I believe if Google created this forum in which to debate the price of different ideas, it could become the internets best content provider, instead of just a way of getting to other WebPages.

 

If each idea had a rank, and each reasons to agree or disagree had a rank, you could track an ideas popularity over time, just like people track the performance of a stock. You could instantly pull up the top 10 reasons to agree or disagree with each idea.

 

Think of what this would do for world politics. Instead of the Jews going to their own website, and the Arabs going to their own websites, where only data that supports their side is discussed, they will go to the same website. Finely the website will bring those with defend opinions together.

 

http://groups.google.com/group/Base-Google