Re: self-ratings vs. market ratings

["Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>]

BW:
>I think of a rating as something which is attached to something
>"pre-knowledge", whereas a reputation is something which develops over
>time & based upon informed knowledge ("after-knowledge").

you are free to assume any connotation you like. but in my view
they are pretty much interchangeable. they are both "meta
information"-- information about other things or information.

a credit rating is in fact a "credit reputation"-- it is a built
up credit history over time. maybe you would prefer the term
"credit reputation"?

>A rating is applied to something (a service or whatever) by only those
>few individuals who are acquainted with what they are rating.
>
>A reputation is accumulated by the impressions made upon larger numbers
>of individuals - a general population not necessarily employed to
>collect these impressions - but who have nevertheless sufficient
>exposure to and acquaintanceship with the person/service/etc. to make an
>informed conclusion about it.  
>
>A rating can make a statement on what something "is" or is expected to
>be (eg, general in content vs explicitly sexual), where a reputation
>reflects on past behavior.

oh, ok, a reputation would refer to a person, and a rating might
refer to a thing. a valid distinction, but not necessary for a 
system that is purely electronic. people and things could be 
rated interchangeably. but of course in the "people" case you 
are going to get a lot more political fire. issues like libel
and defamation come up. it will be interesting to see how they
are resolved.

again, I suspect in the future the distinctions you refer to
are going to blur. there will just be ratings of all kinds of
things, including people. some ratings will be based on 
expert opinions, some will be based ona consensus of opinions
measured somehow ("reputation"), some will be purely objective
such as "score on last driving exam", etc.

of course all kinds of nasty issues like privacy etc. rear their
head. I don't claim to have an answer or clearcut guidelines
for all this.