From: Jonathan Zamick <JonathanZ@consensus.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 95 12:36:58 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: question about reputation
Message-ID: <v02130501ac7a4c166b62@[157.22.240.11]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Actually about a year ago I was working on a project to help merge
electronic tokens and 'reputation'. The idea was to reinforce contributions
to the net and acknowledge them in a tangible manner The classic
method of gauging respect has become more difficult as the growth of the net
has resutlted in a surfeit of citizens who simply haven't learned the idea
of contribution and net community, nor how to judge the level of respect
that others have.

We'd seed a certain # of tokens amongst FAQ maintainers, moderators, and
those who are active in helping on lists and forums. A group would be
chosen to help decide how to split up the seed tokens. This group would not
be eligible for any tokens themselves (they'd be selected from those we
felt were the most active, oddly they'd be earning old style respect, that
is contributing their time in distributing tokens without being able to
earn any.)

Still under discussion was how to bring more tokens into the system. One
was to continue to distribute tokens based on a standard for certain
actions and further nominations as judged by the council (which would
change membership itself over time.) The second was to have an actual
foundation set up to accept contributions to be distributed to other net
related non-profits. Thus for those who don't have the time or knowledge
base to contribute to the net, they can actually contribute money to aid
net-related groups.

The tokens could be exchanged when people answer questions, as favors. Part
of the money from the foundation would be to have gatherings which would
'cost' tokens, so those who have put in their time and labor could mix and
listen to speakers, enjoy a nice dinner, etc.

Anyway, just interesting to see the topic come up now in the Cypherpunk
community. At the time, there were still some barriers between the
objectives
we were given by different people paying our own checks on the matter.
Perhaps the idea of 'Friends of the Net' is now more pertinent.

Feel free to drop me some email or cc back to the list. If enough people
are interested, I'll look into the subject again.

Jonathan

------------------------------------------------------------------------
..Jonathan Zamick                    Consensus Development Corporation..
..<JonathanZ@consensus.com>                      1563 Solano Ave, #355..
..                                             Berkeley, CA 94707-2116..
..                                        o510/559-1500  f510/559-1505..
..Mosaic/WWW Home Page:                                               ..
..  Consensus Home Page  ..