Beating the Brains : Self-regulation and Emergence of Content in Electonic Conferencing

Abstract

Many internet discussions suffer from a number of shortcomings, such asa distorted read/write ratio, lack of structure, and lack of progression. In relation to a university lustrum project, an internet discussion platform, named "Beating the Brains," is built such that the content and the direction of a discussion (ona certain topic) is steered implicitly by the participants. The steering takes place by means by rules and a scoring system. This article discusses BtB and compares it with other internet discussion platforms, such as "Slashdot," Slashdot-type platforms and the consumer product evaluation site "Epinions".