What is Intelligent Scoring?

So, we’ve identified the problem.  Lots of information.  We realize that the more stuff there is, the harder it is to sort through it and find the really good stuff.  The same is true with people.  The more people there are ”in a room”, the harder it is to identify with whom you want to spend your time.

What we need is something that does this work for us.  One solution would be to hire an army of editors (or moderators) to sift through content or “work the room” for us.  Clearly, they could identify the good content and the best players in the game, right?  Well … maybe … assuming that they are significantly credible and proficient in the concerns of the community to represent us.  But how do you know that they will make good judgments, unless you’ve already got a mechanism in place to select them out of the crowd?  Pretty significant catch-22, since that’s what you’re “hiring” them to do in the first place.

We’ve already talked about the phenomenon of social networking.  As the Internet grows, it has begun more and more to resemble a giant democratic community.  Sites are emerging every day that leverage the power of the democratic process to understand what is valuable — check out MySpace, Digg, Flickr, Del.icio.us and Topix, just to name a few.  This is because those who use the net all over the world are feeling the pain that we’re describing — sifting through the noise to find the value.

I propose that we leverage this democratic process.  Give the people the vote.  Instead of trying to come up with an army of editors, let’s use the army of people already in the room.  We don’t have to know them by name or have them on the payroll to glean a wealth of valuable information from observing their interactions.  That’s where Intelligent Scoring and our engine come in.

Lots of efforts out there are counting number of views and downloads, lots are giving members of the community the opportunity to vote for what they like, but these are only a couple parts of a much larger picture.  Think bigger.  The idea is to observe the behavior of the community (to collect the vast amount of data that’s right in front of us, but that is easy to overlook), and to be smart about interpreting it (to pull from the data valuable conclusions that can be drawn about the members of and content in the community).

This solution requires automating the process.  There aren’t enough editors in the world to sit around watching and interpreting interactions.  Who could afford to pay for all that?  Instead, let’s use the computer.  That’s what we built it for, right?  If you’re surfing your favorite online community, and behind the scenes there’s an engine observing your behavior — along with the behavior of everyone else in the community — then you have a powerful mechanism in play from which to draw conclusions.  Couldn’t these conclusions be about which content is the most valuable or about which members are the most significant?

Our goal has been to create just such a mechanism — to do the hard work of causing the good content to rise to the top, and to identify the best members of the community.  We call this mechanism the “Content Valuation Engine”, or CVE.  It is the heart of the idea of Intelligent Scoring.

Technorati tags: web 2.0, myspace, del.icio.us, flickr, topix, digg

Social Networking, The Internet’s Future

The first time you sent an email, did you envision what the Internet is becoming today?  As more and more people got on-line, two things were just bound to happen (as they’ve been want to do all through history) …

1. People wanted to express themselves, and
2. People drew together into communities.

There was just no way around it, and now we’re seeing it happen.  In the last couple years alone, dozens of sites have sprung up that are focused on these two things.  Sites like MySpace, Technorati, Flickr, Del.icio.us, Topix and a host of others are all part of a recently-under-construction section of the information superhighway called “Social Networking”.

A social network, according to Wikipedia, is “a social structure made of nodes which are generally individuals or organizations. It indicates the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds.  The term was first coined in 1954 by J. A. Barnes.”  Great technical definition, but let’s unpack that a bit…

MySpace is a pure social networking site.  I want to express myself and connect to others, so I “create a MySpace” (how long will it be before that makes it into Webster?).  I link to those I like, and those who like me link to me.  In a short amount of time, the “structure of nodes” Barnes was talking about is quickly and easily created.

But isn’t a link you put on your site simply a vote for the site you’re linking to?  Is it any less a social network if you post your votes on a social bookmarking site like Del.icio.us?  When everyone else can see your votes and use them to create a network of sites / content that interests them, that’s social networking as well.  Another step further…  If everyone tags content on sites like Google Video or Flickr, we’re also creating a social networking, because the rest of the world can use those tags to connect sites and create a web (network) of stuff that interests them.  Each of these “Web 2.0″ tools — though different mechanisms — accomplish similar purposes … to give the masses the power to express themselves in community … to surround themselves with and share with others their network of content.

This is the Internet of the (at least near-term) future.  Everyone’s voice weighing in to help you decide which content you want to check out.  Even blogging fits into this category, if you think about it.  First, we learned to create static pages.  Now, as the 21st century really gets underway, for the second time, the self-describing power of the Internet – where the users of the system create the system — is really being taken out for a spin.

Technorati tags: social networking, social network, internet, web 2.0, flickr, myspace, del.icio.us, topix

It’s not just what you know…

Community is a tricky thing.  If I’m just looking up some fact in a reference manual (and the manual actually has what I’m looking for), then I guess don’t really need it.  What I really need is a good manual, where “good” is defined as having the information I need, or a good author to generate the right manual in the first place.

Oh, wait!  Got me!  Maybe I do need more than the manual.  Why?  Because the “if” in the “if the manual has what I’m looking for” statement above is a pretty big “if”.  Isn’t that your experience?  It sure is mine.  Even if we lay aside the many other benefits of community and focus exclusively on knowledge management for a moment, there’s still a lot to be said for doing work in groups.  Learning, many times, is more than just a database or reference volume.

In other words, a lot of times I want to know who knows something … as much as, if not more than, just discovering the isolated fact they know.  Because, if they’re worth their salt, then they know far more than the one thing I gleaned from the one conversation I was in.  Instead, wouldn’t you rather be connected to their knowledge in general.  They probably have a lot more to teach you than just one thing, especially if you’ve identified that they’re knowledgable in the same things you’re interested in.

Well then, maybe their IQ and their phone number is all I care about.  That sounds good, right?  Not really.  I also want to know who they are.  If they’re not trustworthy … or not ambitious enough to share what they know … or not committed to the community … or don’t care if I need their help … or … or … or … Then being connected to them just isn’t as valuable to me, no matter what they know.

So, it’s more than what they know that I care about, it’s who they are.  Not just their proficiency, but their credibility as well.  Not just their level of knowledge, but their integrity, their motivation, their trustworthiness … lots of variables that have everything to do with them and their character, and very little to do with the the knowledge or shared purpose of the community.

Take TechLore for instance.  People that are always out there, always contributing, always reading something new about some facet of the consumer electronics world.  If I have a lot of questions about my gadgets or a lot of experiences to share, then I want to rub shoulders with these folks.  Yes, they have to know what they’re talking about.  But if they’ve demonstrated to me honesty and consistency and commitment to the community over time, then they’re the kind of person I want to be connected to — more than just being connected to the knowledge or experience they share in one blog entry, etc. Because life isn’t a reference manual.

Technorati tags: credibility, proficiency, character, techlore

What do you want out of your Online Community?

If we agree that community is important to people and that online community is a legitimate phenomenon in the 21st century, then that begs the question, “What do we get out of online community?”  What should we get out of it?  What do you want it to provide to / for you?

For me, I want connection … to people and to their ideas.  If we’re sharing a common purpose or interest, goal or passion, then I want to be able to share it well.  I want to meet people who are “top notch” and find access to ideas and information that’s right up there with them.  If there are people who aren’t very committed to the community and to the interest we share in it, then they’re less attractive to me.  If someone’s written 10 books on the subject, then I want to meet them.  Wait … only if their books are good ones, so I’m going to need a way to figure that out — ideally without reading all 10. 

If there’s any objectivity to the information — such as how to setup a few IR repeaters in my entertainment system, when the registration deadline for that conference is, or where the nearest Chicago-style pizza parlor’s located — then I need to find that information quickly and easily.  And it needs to be correct when I find it.  Plus, I feel an obligation to share knowledge and experience here when someone is looking for it.

If it’s more subjective – such as picking a new digital television, deciding which new audio book to download, or figuring out which pizza place is the best — then I want advice and opinion from people I trust.  Of course, I might also have opinions or advise to share here too.

So those are my requirements for a good community.  What about you?  What do you look for?

Technorati tags: community, connection

What is an Online Community?

If our company is “all about online community“, then I guess I’d better define the term

A community is a group of people, variable in size, who come together around a common purpose, goal, or interest.

An online community is a group of people who come together using Internet technologies as their communication medium.  Most commonly, this is the web, but not always.  Instant messaging, IRC, email, SMS and others all qualify.  The revolution of the Internet has opened a huge set of doors to shrinking the world and bringing people closer together.  So, where communities once had to pretty much be in the same room to be effective in their interaction or the sharing of ideas, today a group of people can be spread out all over the world but still belong to the same (even tight-knit) community. 

A great example of an online community is the Sling Community.  This community was built by Capable Networks for Sling Media, the visionary company who brought us the Slingbox.  Here, those who own slingboxes or may someday buy one or maybe just think they’re cool – whatever it is about the slingbox that brings people together – gather to share common interest in this new technology.  Our community platform enables that (we’ll talk more about how it does that later).  This is an online community – a common interest shared by over 5,000 people all over the world via a bunch of clever Internet-based technology. 

For more “Terms and Definitions”, see the glossary page I’ve added (and will continue to update).

Technorati tags: online community, community, slingbox, sling media

Who is Capable Networks?

Capable Networks LLC was founded in 2004 by Ron Repking and Steven Jones.  Because I’ve known these guys for years, I’ve been connected to the company since the beginning, and have formally worked for the company since the beginning of 2006.

Capable Networks was formed to address the problem I talked about in a former entry – that good information is becoming harder and harder to come by as the web grows and the world shrinks.  We state our goal / vision pretty concisely in the form of a catchy byline:  “More value.  Less noise.  Every day.”

The company is all about giving people the tools necessary to find what they’re looking for online in the best possible way.  We’ve pressed several different kinds of weapons into service as we work to fulfill this vision.  The centerpiece in our arsenal is our online community platform, which we’ve used now to create several kinds of communities – with more on the way.  At the heart of our platform is our Intelligent Scoring engine we call the “Content Valuation Engine”, or CVE.  Intelligent scoring is our patent-pending mechanism that does the actual work, behind the scenes of our platform, to cause the good stuff to rise to the top.  This is how we achieve our “more value, less noise, every day” vision.

My role – in creating this blog – is to discuss this vision of Intelligent Scoring, and how it’s becoming a reality.  If you stay tuned, you’ll discover that I plan to be all over the map on this and related topics.  I look forward to sharing how we came about this idea, what has influenced it, where we’re going, where we think the web is going, who else is doing what, etc.  As you read and have questions, post them.  I’m excited about the opportunity to dialogue about this significant invention and what it has to offer online communities and the web in general.

Hope to see you out there.  Oh, and for more information about the company or our online communities, check out http://www.capablenetworks.com/company.shtml.

Technorati tags: capable networks, value, intelligent scoring, content valuation engine, cve