Following up on our previous post ‘Why Democratization Creates Commodities‘, let’s dwell on the issue of finding quality products in the midst of the avalanche of available products and data.
Peer ratings are essential in new Collaborative Age to replace the filtering and quality control by institutions.
Of course it has drawbacks (creating trends and popularity which might not be entirely warranted) but not necessarily worse than the personal preference of an editor. The main issue is that while the opinion of an editor might be known, collaborative rating has a somewhat unpredictable outcome that might be influenced (and even possibly manipulated) through early ratings generated by supporters. Still when a domain becomes mature, collaborative rating does become effective and less influenced by initial ratings.
Democratization without a peer rating system won’t work. Both need to develop together. Be suspicious of democratization drives that would not be accompanied by a strong peer rating system!
