I think everyone should revisit Outfoxed, if you’re interested in a truly interesting new approach to bookmarking and web browsing that actually takes advantage of all this “Web 2.0” hype and nonsense.
I just mentioned this to Free Coders on the mailing list yesterday.
The application of “trust-based networks” is very wide. I think it’s the “trust” factor that makes eBay successful (perhaps even viable!). New services like Pandora and Last.fm recommend music by trusting that users who rate music are being honest. eBay users buy from trusted sellers by assuming that those who rate the sellers are honest. These assumptions may be fallible, but they’re better than nothing. And it’s only natural that this trend would spread to web browsing.
I think trust networks should be applied to political organizing, both to reduce risk of people showing up just to start trouble, and also to enhance the perceived value of a meeting based on the combined trust of its attendees. I’m going to think about this a bit more in the next few days.
(Meanwhile, I got in touch with Runar from the Google talk with Alex Martelli, who is working on an awesome library for Python called sqlstring. Check it out. I’ve also been thinking about expanding on my earlier ideas on Python inferred types; we’ll see if I find the time.)
Hey, thanks for writing about Outfoxed!
Stan (its creator) and several other guys are working on another version of it and we’re launching a first beta test soon.
I suppose you’re already an Outfoxed user, so you will be informed when our product is ripe for another round of testing – alternatively it will also be announced on my blog.
Hey Fabian, thanks for stopping by. I can’t wait for the new version.