"The camel," goes an old joke, "is a horse designed by a committee."
An unhappy outcome of inviting a plurality of opinions is that any final conclusion that seeks to please everyone will irritate most.
The Internet, Sockpuppets, and the Broken Tail
Why is the Internet like Zimbabwe ... a country where 12 million people survive in a turbulent, informal market, dominated by wealthy dictators, with 11 million percent inflation, and no rule of law?
Because the Internet is just as perversely unequal and unstable; with 1 billion people online, spending per capita is only 33 cents per day and the top 100 businesses accrue more than half of that; reputations to mitigate trade risk are earned in walled-gardens, like Amazon or eBay, and much activity is designed to game the system in order to earn a reputation above and beyond a person’s worth.
Download the introductory report here.
