[circle] Voting on p2p

[Jiri Baum]

Hello,

I've been thinking over the weekend...

Problem:
=======

How to find good stuff (nice music) on a p2p file-sharing network.

Status quo:
==========

Currently, file sharing applications (including circle) largely ignore this 
problem. They provide a popularity count, but this is problematic: in order 
to have a high popularity count, a file must be already popular.

A brand new, just-recorded file is available on only one computer (the 
artist's), and a pure popularity count system will keep it that way.

Currently, the most successful way of gaining a high popularity count is to 
have a recording company pay for an international advertising campaign; 
understandably, they're not entirely happy if this advertising ends up 
promoting p2p downloads rather than sales of shiny CDs.

Solution:
========

I think the solution is to let users to vote on files, in five or seven steps 
ranging from "excellent" to "terrible" in various categories. That way, the 
system can distinguish between "never heard it" and "hated it", and only 
count the latter against a file.

I've put down a few thoughts on this in a (rather overgrown) blog entry,
http://www.baum.com.au/~jiri/ae/blog/01083897065


Any suggestions? Is this a good idea or a bad one? In particular, any ideas 
for a more concrete algorithm?

Jiri
-- 
Jiri Baum <address@hidden>           http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jirib
  MAT LinuxPLC project --- http://mat.sf.net --- Machine Automation Tools