Popularity is not a validation of authority.
After reading …Loic Le Meur blog postTwitter: We Need Search By Authority
I felt another dive into the reputation and authority thought sea
was in order (i wish it were a swimming pool but alas it is not that
shallow) One of the key points is that top down results on a search term on Twitter based on authority would be a good idea. I almost think of that as the “i feel lucky” on
Google search. The randomness excluded for the results at the same
time there is a strong need for weighted search for Twitter.
As TechCrunch says
But sometimes it would be nice to hear what just the top users are
saying on a particular topic, too, since so many more people hear their
message.
The first question that comes to mind is.. What comprises authority on Twitter?. Number of followers? Well that is one metric but we all could point out people who have a ton
of followers on Twitter yet have little or no authority in real life or marginal value in the real world. Popularity is not a validation of authority.
You could also take in the
- # of posts
- @replys
- times searched for of comments.
- # of ‘likes’.
- # of retweets
(This being one of the more important metrics.)
Other Twitter meta-data metrics could also be included, all of which in part have a place.
From life import business, marketing, social media took a good shot at this.
But why limit results to Twitter, why not pull in real life
accomplishments, other social graph weights (linkedin etc). If you
view Twitter as a platform authority should not be solely determined
from where the conversation takes place.
The other social networks could be ranked in their own authority and then the users networks
within them can hold different values. So a follow on del.icio.us has one value as does
how many VP’ or higher one has on linkedin or recommendations on similar networks for real world accomplishments.
There is a lot of work to be done here but I can not help but think
that the single most important missing components of the networked
world are useful reputation and authority metrics around identity.