One of the things that was interesting about writing my '97 paper on task markets was that this was an obviously fertile field for real new markets for information. In the event, I didn't pursue that idea beyond writing the code, due to the absence of a real digital money that was suitably stable. It was always possible using credit cards, but they tended to pour sand in the machine, so it required a real effort to get such an info-market up and going. Many tried and failed. Now there is a market, run by our fave search engine, at http://answers.google.com/ where you can post a question for some cash. This has been tried before, but not to my knowledge by such a large and sustained player as google. A little searching around reveals a lack of sections, but the following prominent question: https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=5025 "Anonymous Electronic Cash Payment System Sought" for the princely sum of $10 :-) -- iang --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'