Indexing is politics

<![CDATA[Books we like, a new collaborative index of book recommendations founded by the Media Venture Collective is being evangelized by Brad deGraf. Think Working Assets for book recommendations, as a share of sales generated by the site at Amazon, Google and elsehwere, goes to supporting progressive media organizations.
Here’s my feedback: I like the design and the intent; it’s a great way for people to find and share books they like. Question is, how can the recommendations be distributed back out to the rest of the world, an affiliate program? If so, and I have an affiliate program (as I do), is there a sharing program where part of the affiliate fee goes to the progressive organizations? Or, is there a way to record the affiliate fees as a charitable donation and generate the appropriate tax forms at the end of the year?
The contribution of value can flow both ways, which I think is the catalyst for wildfire adoption. Better to make it a way of tracking affiliate fees as a charitable contribution mechanism. Everyone can feel good about that.
The catalog is already interesting. I found several books that were surprising and well reviewed (in the sense that I really connected with the reviewer’s reasons for liking the book). It demonstrates how information organized from one point of view has some power and value; we may contest the point of view, but the perspective is what adds the value.]]>