Is Digg Being Manipulated?
March 17th, 2006 There is a "very interesting article":http://www.siliconvalleysleuth.com/2006/03/digg_is_used_fo.html on "Digg":http://www.digg.com/ being used to spread rumours of a Google buying out Sun. The hypothesis being that a blogger and his friends are using Digg to promote some posts he wrote speculating on a Google purchase Sun to "Pump and Dump":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_and_Dump on Sun. Interesting if true but what it really raises the spectre of really popular social applications is they are open to manipulation. It reminds me of a speech I saw recently by "David Weinberger":http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/ on the authority of trusted sources. The contrast between "Digg":http://www.digg.com and "SlashDot":http://www.slashdot.com is just that, with Slashdot the news on the front-pages is controlled by a trusted source, with Digg it’s a community of people, the so-called "Wisdom of Crowds":http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385503865/ref=cm_aya_asin.title/102-8270283-1996930?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155. But when does the wisdom of crowds become "The Stupidity of Mobs":http://media.gatewayva.com/photos/rtd/special/ibook/index.htm? Self-regulation of communities is fine in an ideal world when no other motives come into play. But ego and commercial gain can work against these better principles. A controlling authority is still needed if crowds are to be trusted.