uTOK annotation/rating system

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uTOK: Users' Tree of Knowledge
http://www.utok.com/

This seems kind of like epinions ( http://www.epinions.com/ ),
except it seems more focused on gathering ratings and comments
on web sites and online resources instead of things like consumer
goods, and it uses a proprietary windows-only client instead of
web forms.

The ratings part of it seems fairly similar to something Curtis
and I talked about the other weekend in Ottawa -- a rating
service for messages posted to various online bulletin boards
(e.g., Motley Fool, Raging Bull, Yahoo.) Last weekend I registered
metagroups.com and metaboards.com for this purpose. (not that
I'll ever get around to actually doing it...)

This idea itself was kind of a simpler refinement of something
I've been wanting to implement for years now: a discussion
hosting/archiving service with an integrated rating system,
with web, mail, and NNTP interfaces.

The implementation I had in mind for metaboards.com was a small
extra browser window that you could have open while surfing
through a message board, with "thumbs up" and "thumbs down"
buttons. Or, possibly a framed page with a tiny ratings bar at
the top of the page, including content from other sites in the
main frame. (but that's liable to tick them off more.)

More details on uTOK:

   http://www.utok.com/Docs/Company/

> About uTOK
>
> uTOK is a revolutionary, free, on-line tool seeking to be the
> most trusted bridge connecting people, their knowledge and public
> information on the Internet. With uTOK, people can form
> relationships with those sharing common interests and harness
> their knowledge to find quality information - much like the real
> world, but better.
>
> In short, the uTOK platform will serve as the ultimate on-line
> tool for finding information and making decisions based on the
> knowledge and opinions of other trusted Internet users ? The
> Users' Tree of Knowledge (uTOK).
>
> How it Works
>
> uTOK is a browsing companion application. Different than a Web
> site, a browsing companion is always with the user.
>
> uTOK users can express themselves by posting and reading notes
> anywhere on the Web without altering Web sites' intended
> appearance.  This enables users to share experiences and interact
> with each other.
>
> A targeted search feature allows users to locate notes related to
> a specific key word. This provides users an effective means of
> searching the Web based on the collective experience of others.
>
> A unique rating system lets people vote ?thumbs up? or ?thumbs
> down?  on the notes they read. This democratic system ensures
> high quality of information, an essential ingredient to a
> productive environment.
>
> Users can create and participate in ?traveling groups? formed
> around interests. This enables them to select individuals with
> whom they want to connect and form meaningful relationships.
>
> uTOK provides the essential building blocks for bringing the
> richness of the offline world into the online world and forming a
> trusted bridge between people, their knowledge and public
> information.

Looking at the tour:

   http://www.utok.com/Docs/Tour/

it actually seems to verge on being an interesting annotation
service, except for being totally proprietary and closed.

p.s. note all the question marks in the quoted text above --
    these people clearly need demoronizing:
    http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/demoroniser/

--
Gerald Oskoboiny <[email protected]>
http://impressive.net/people/gerald/

HURL: fogo mailing list archives, maintained by Gerald Oskoboiny