<p>We need a few volunteers to get this project moving into high-gear. Building on @whuber's excellent <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/2990/poll-on-data-collection-issues-for-our-first-polystats-project/3020#3020">answer</a> to this question I have identified a few tasks that we need to do. I have divided up the tasks in such a way that they should not take up too much of any one person's time. Please edit this answer and write your name against a task if you wish to do that task. Please update this answer also with relevant pointers/answers to each task under its respective bullet point. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>Setting up a wiki - Shane has volunteered to set this up. </p>

<p>The wiki link is at: <a href="http://www.statalgo.com/polystatsproject/wiki/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.statalgo.com/polystatsproject/wiki/</a></p></li>
<li><p>We need a definition for reputation as used by various fields and what it means in the context of Q&amp;A communities. Some preliminary definitions from the top of my head:</p>

<ul>
<li>Reputation = "Expertise in a specific domain"</li>
<li>Reputation = "Trustworthiness"  </li>
<li>Wiki has a section on '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reputation#Online_Reputation" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Online Reputation</a>'  </li>
<li>As per this sites <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/faq">FAQ</a> "Reputation is a rough measurement of how much the community trusts you."</li>
</ul></li>
<li><p>Can someone find out if there is a formal definition of reputation effect? (Srikant)</p>

<p>(a) Reputation Effect as Analogy to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Network effects</a></p>

<p>The wiki states: "In economics and business, a network effect (also called network  externality) is the effect that one user of a good or service has on the value of that product to other people. <strong>When network effect is present, the value of a product or service increases as more people use it.</strong>[Emphasis added]"</p>

<p>Thus, in our context, reputation effect would be: "When reputation effects are present the reputation of a user increases faster the higher his/her reputation is."</p>

<p>(b) Another definition would be what?</p>

<p>(Changing the unit of analysis to answers/questions as opposed to people) A reputation effect would be: "When an individual has a higher reputation, their questions/answers receive more up-votes, ceteris paribus to answers by individuals with lower reputation".
Added by Andy W</p></li>
<li><p>Can a few people dig up at a few references relevant to the project? </p>

<ul>
<li>Andy has set up a link at: <a href="http://www.citeulike.org/groupfunc/14031/home" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.citeulike.org/groupfunc/14031/home</a> which will have a list of references for our project.</li>
<li>Another reference: <a href="http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0167923605000849" rel="nofollow noreferrer">A survey of trust and reputation systems for online service provision</a>  </li>
</ul></li>
<li><p>What theoretical framework(s) would be appropriate for this project? </p></li>
<li><p>Anything else we need to do please add as additional items.</p></li>
</ol>
