Chapter 10: Calculating the Reputation of a Reviewer

The advent and rapid spread of peer to peer (P2P) technologies warrant a paradigm shift in the way we look at concepts of trust, reputation, and reliability. Users wishing to maintain anonymity and privacy are finding it harder to transact online without ceding information to a third party. The value of the marketplace is brought out through the reviews market, but there are factors that make reviewing products unappealing for users. To explore this issue, the author analyzes some of the metrics published by Amazon.com to see how people choose to trust reviews, if they do at all, and what the author can learn from the people who want to help others on the platform. This will help us assess the urgency to create value in a centralized, verified, and accredited supply of honest information. Then, we can make a case for open, P2P, decentralized, and anonymous marketplaces since they can implement a higher bar for trust and reliability.