Recommendation Market ...

This is something i have been thinking about ... one of the applications of the web 2.0 technologies, and of what some call the semantic web (one of these days, i am actually going to figure out what this means, and maybe even understand the difference between the two concepts) is the recommendation platform which this technology provides. What we are talking about is, at the basic, recommendations of products and services (reading the Times Good Food Guide to find new places to go to, or checking out burrp). As we are seeing this aspect is becoming more and more sophisticated (not so much in terms of technology as in terms of users).

Why i am talking about this is simple. People are coming up with more and more ways to use technologies to collaborate, and share thoughts and opinions. One aspect that catches the eye is the way you can share content which you appreciate with your social networks. Its quite simple to click an icon, and share content, ranging from articles, blogs, to videos, on facebook, for example. What i am talking about is from the reader's perspective. And from this perspective, at times, this can be overwhelming. And it can become even more so when you try to apply this to your job. Theres just so much of opinion, it can become quite an effort going through it, leave aside taking any decisions based on this. Which is why i blogged about searching for opinions.

One tool i came across is idopia ... something i have written about. This seems to be a tool which is more than just a survey tool, which also captures the qualitative aspect of your opinion. Another thing which comes to mind is the define functionality on google. If you want a formal definition for Knowledge Management, just type "define:Knowledge Management" and it will give you definitions of the term as they appear on the net. Something on these lines, working around opinions ... covering a set of sources, including blogs, wikis, your communities ... which can give you what people out there are thinking ... especially when it comes to giving their opinions on a particular topic.