Thus spake Nicholas Thompson circa 28/01/09 07:34 PM: > [...] why not > have every article published and every article rated by a number of stars, > and then everybody could set their browser to the minimum number of stars > we are willing to tolerate. Those of us who don't want to be subject to > the "peer review" effect, could simply set their browser to read everything > with any stars at all!
The problem with this is that a number of stars is uni-dimensional, while the guidelines for reviewers for any given publication are multi-dimensional (and/or vague). You could still project down to one dimension if you have a strong policy of who gets to rate the article, what the criteria are for the rating, and the trump power of the editor's opinion. The ultimate automation would be a multi-dimensional rating measure, though. Then you might be able to get rid of the per-publication policies. I'm imagining a preference- (or query-) controlled modal 5-dimensional 3D space with color and animation. Oooo, we could also implement an automated-profiling-controlled physics for the 5D system so that articles were, say, attracted to you based on your past interests, more elastic where clusters of articles cover much of the same content, coefficients of friction were adjusted based on which region of rating space you were exploring at the time, colors (of the articles) change when your focus shifts from fact to speculation or physics to philosophy, etc. ... or not. -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
