Reputation systems

Paul Resnick, Ko Kuwabara, Richard Zeckhauser, Eric Friedman. Reputation systems. Communications of the ACM, 43(12):45-48, 2000. [doi]

Abstract

The Internet offers vast new opportunities to interact with total strangers. These interactions can be fun, informative, even profitable. But they also involve risk. Is the advice of a self-proclaimed expert at expertcentral.com reliable? Will an unknown dotcom site or eBay seller ship items promptly with appropriate packaging? Will the product be the same one described online?