Hubdub is introducing a new technology platform and community that combines the value of user-generated news aggregation with the accuracy and excitement of prediction markets.
Unlike Digg or Reddit, Hubdub tracks only the stories that people decide are worth creating a market around. To create a market, someone simply asks a question, for example, “Will Barack Obama secure the Democratic Presidential nomination?†They request either a “yes†or “no†answer or offer a multiple choice scenario, then determine the duration of trading.
Other community members can wager “Hubdub dollars†(H$) to compete on predictions – everyone starts with H$1,000. As market creators and predictors build a successful portfolio, they can establish credibility to leverage within their industry or area of expertise. Successful predictors make the leaderboard in topics such as Technology, Politics and Sports, which they can link back to their blogs, sites or profiles on social networks.
Markets allow people to see how opinion on any question evolves and changes over time, similar to the historical views on favorite financial trading sites.
For each market, Hubdub automatically populates the trading page with aggregated news from across the Web to provide background and insight for predictors and bystanders. Depending on activity, the market, representing opinion, will trade up or down.
At the very least, Hubdub helps people discover, track and discuss all major news stories and offers to challenge, excite, and reward them through competitive prediction of story outcomes. It also promotes and facilitates intelligent user comments and intense debates. In addition, markets can be embedded in blogs, allowing bloggers to highlight news stories, issues and outcomes they care about within their own communities.
Originally posted on January 29, 2008 @ 9:41 pm