Thanks for your comments and question. I'll comment on your 1st paragraph, and hopefully someone will comment on your 2nd paragraph re: the reputation engine.
In terms of book reviews, Gartner Research recently published case studies that included on on Barnes & Noble (www.barnesandnoble.com). The report is called “The Business Impact of Social Computing: Real-World Results for Customer Engagement”and key excerpts include:
- “Barnes & Noble.com created its Book Clubs social-media community as a virtual place where book lovers can share their passion and help each other enrich their lives by discovering books they may enjoy. As a result of this discovery, Barnes & Noble creates the potential for new book sales in stores and online.”
- “The environment runs on top of Lithium Technologies (www.lithium.com), and primarily employs discussion forums and blogging for participant interactions.”
- “The community experiences more than 5 million visitors per month (www.compete.com), 7 million page views and 13,000 new posts per month, making it a thriving online destination for book lovers to connect and share their passion for books, reading and authors. This activity translates into increased sales.”
