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Information Markets Sidebar

June 6th, 2006

Information markets are quite interesting. (Also known as prediction markets, depending on which academic you want to make happy).  The academic literature is fun to read and intellectually quite interesting.  The general idea is that a diverse crowd of humans is better at aggregating information and selecting the “correct” outcome than is a group of deliberating experts.

For a quick introduction to the concept read James Surowiecki’s Wisdom of the Crowds.  More in-depth literature is available on the web, a good starting point is Chris Masse’s prediction market vortal. Foresight Exchange, the oldest online information market, also provides an open source platform for generating customized solutions.

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