Because we don't all get together enough and talk about important nerd topics, we and our Yahoo! compatriots have started a series of microconferences, entitled confab.yahoo, which will be open to all and be held in the evenings and early in the week (so you don't have the excuse of needing to go to important parties).
The first in this series, on Dec 13 at 5:30pm, is a discussion on Prediction Markets, moderated by James Surowiecki. Please sign up and join me next week.
A prediction market is like a stock market for ideas or information. The market rewards good information whether it comes from elites or the masses. Prediction markets have built a track record of besting pundits and pollsters when it comes to predicting everything from political elections to quarterly sales figures.
From the announcement:
Join us for a public “how to” session on prediction markets1 moderated by James Surowiecki, New Yorker columnist and best-selling author of The Wisdom of Crowds.
Bo Cowgill from Google, Leslie Fine from HP, Todd Proebsting from Microsoft, and Dave Pennock from Yahoo! will describe how they are using prediction markets to aid corporate forecasting and decision making.
Other speakers include Chris Hibbert, the developer of Zocalo, an open source prediction market platform; Adam Siegel, the co-founder of InklingMarkets.com, a Paul Graham yCombinator startup, and Robin Hanson, the visionary economist and inventor whose pioneering work paved the way.
The event will emphasize practical lessons and hands-on advice. After brief presentations from each speaker, Surowiecki will open up the session for discussion with the audience.