 |
Top 10 Lists on Everything ! |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Voting For The Masses
|
|
|
|
“A billion Chinese people cant be wrong.[about rice]” This is a quote taken from
the 1987 movie The Lost Boys. While this was meant as comedic injection into a tense
situation, the point is clear. If enough people agree on something the chances are
they are right. More recently this idea has taken on a new term of phrase on the
popular TV show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. In this show the contestant gets
to “ask the audience” basing their judgment on the fact that it’s likely that a
whole audience, given a number of options are more likely to make the correct choice
than the contestant alone. All of this is based on something known as Condorcet's
Jury Theorem which states that “where the average chance of a member of a voting
group making a correct decision is greater than fifty percent the chance of the
group as a whole making the correct decision will increase with the addition of
more members to the group.” In short, the more people that vote on a choice
the more likely that the top choice, the one with the most votes is correct.
|
|
|
|
iTop3
|
|
This is where iTop3(www.itop3.com) comes in, users of the site can vote on anything
from what is the best mobile phone to who has made the single biggest impact in
the advancement of the human race. Each user can add up to 3 choices per category
and say why they have picked those choices. People can even set up their own subjects
and ask people to vote. Other users can then vote by adding their own choices or
selecting the same choices as other users, users can also discuss people’s choices.
Over time as the number of voters increases so a clear Top 10 emergences, based
on what the majority of people think. Once the subject obtains a reasonable amount
of votes it becomes obvious what most people consider the best, and in most cases,
it probably is.
|
|
|
|
Why is this useful?
|
|
Consider many purchasing decisions, let’s say we want to buy a new mobile phone.
I would do some research, which may involve reading reviews and asking some friends.
However the biggest problem with reviews is they are normally the viewpoint of individuals
albeit often individuals with some knowledge of the product, whom may or may not
be biased towards that product. However a growing problem on the internet is people
being paid to blog about products in a favorable way, and reviewers being swayed
with “free promotional items”. What if you could have the reassurance that 1000’s
of people all agree which mobile phone is the best one, It would be almost impossible
to biase the opinion of such a large group of non connected individuals. Conversely,
its just as reassuring to find out which mobile phones people don’t want to recommend.
In seconds you can make a decision based on the viewpoints of a very large audience.
iTop3 can help give you the reassurance that you are not alone in trying to make
your purchasing decisions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|