More On Web Trials

More on Web Trials by Seth Roberts:

Yesterday I posted Robin Hanson’s comments on web trials. My comments on his comments:

All-to-all institutions — institutions that help connect everyone to everyone — are ancient and have been very important. Markets and money may have been the first. If I pay Sam $5 for X, and then Sam pays Peter $5 for Y, Peter and Sam have traded X and Y. Money has made this much easier. Democratic institutions allow everyone to govern everyone. Banks allow everyone to loan money to everyone. Books allow everyone to teach everyone. Wikipedia makes all-to-all teaching much easier. Web trials allow everyone to help everyone solve any problem where data would help. As Robin says, Wikipedia suggests that people will participate in all-to-all institutions when there is no obvious reward for doing so.