I would like information about other (besides Google Answers)
internet-based marketplaces where people buy and sell information.
Specifically:
1) What type of information is bought and sold?
2) Are buyers and suppliers different people or do some participants
play both roles?
3) What is the currency used (dollars, points, status, etc.)?
4) By what mechanism is the marketplace compensated (advertising,
membership, transaction fees, etc.)
5) What incentives/disincentives are used to ensure the veracity of
the information exchanged? |
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
29 Mar 2005 11:32 PST
Interesting question, but it's a bit hard to know what you're getting at.
Are you asking only about Q&A type sites, of which Google Answers is a
prime example?
Or are you asking about all information vendors, of which there are
thousands? Many sites offer access to commercial databases -- Lexis
Nexis, InfoUSA, Dialog, and so on and so on -- and consolidating
information on all these vendors to answer your questions would be a
formidable undertaking.
Let us know what sort of boundaries to put on this question, so we can
better assess how readily answerable it is.
Thanks,
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
drvenkman-ga
on
29 Mar 2005 15:23 PST
I am specifically interested in sites that deal in "custom"
information, not commercial databases. There are, for example, online
marketplaces for the exchange of contact information. This service is
another. I am trying to determine whether there are others still -
stand alone or as a component of larger services - and what their
operating mechanics are. I don't think this is a clearly defined
service catagory so it may take a bit of creative interpretation -
hence, my enlistment of your assistance.
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Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
30 Mar 2005 04:01 PST
Hello again, and thanks for the feedback. The link to jigsaw.com was
especially helpful is seeing what you're after.
A couple of thoughts:
--Is a service like http://www.elance.com along the lines of what
you're looking for? This is a market-driven site for freelance
services, many of them primarily information-based.
--There are a ton of paper-mills on the internet, like this one:
http://www.essayplanet.net/
where students can buy a term paper instead of writing their own. The
service usually just links up the student and the author and handles
the fees, and in that sense, is a market-maker. Is that on target for
you?
--Lastly, have a look at this Q&A answered by my colleague, pinkfreud-ga:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=465378
It details other services similar in some repects to Google Answers.
Are these of interest to you?
By the way, if there are only one or two or three sites that fit the
bill, I think a researcher can answer your 5 explicit questions on
each site. More than that, however, and the amount of work involved
in detailing each site begins to become excessive, I would think.
Would some sort of more general overview meet your needs, in that
case?...(and here we have the information market-place at work, n'est
ce pas?).
Let me know your thoughts on all this.
paf
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Clarification of Question by
drvenkman-ga
on
30 Mar 2005 13:00 PST
Elance ia a marketplace for services, not information and would not be
of interest to me. Papermills are selling a service as well, I think.
The list from pinkfreud is more on target and getting my marketplace
questions answered aanswered for these sites would be interesting,
although it focuses on only one 'model' - Q&A (which would include
Google Answers).
Jigsaw is interesting to me because it is focused on the exchange of
information between people. Buyers are sellers and vice versa. I am
trying to understand if there are other information market models out
there. If Q&A is model #1 and Jigsaw represents model #2, is there a
#3 or #4?
To your point, the best outcome for me would be an answer to my
questions for the different models that exist and a list of sites that
are examples of each model.
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