Can the "wisdom of crowds" predict the big 2008 tour?
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Blog: The Police reunion was the surprise of early 2007, and Van Halen with original singer David Lee Roth will close out the year. Can the hive mind predict the big tour of 2008?
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The uncertain prediction market will get a new player this week when Hubdub introduces a combination news aggregation and predictive platform at the semi-annual Demo conference in Palm Desert, Calif.Demo conferences this year will bring on stage 77 companies with a good idea but not enough capital as they present their products to an audience consisting of VCs and executives from the investment arm of high-tech companies. Hubdub will try to convince one of these audience members that they will not be taking a chance by investing in its technology.The Hubdub platform creates a market around news events, such as how big will the final tax rebate be once it is signed into law by President Bush. Along with the question comes a selection of multiple choice responses.Yes-or-no response questions are also possible, such as, Will Barack Obama gain the Democratic Presidential nomination?The community wages Hubdub dollars to compete on predictions.The point of the game is to see who comes out right most of the time. If you are one of those folks, according to Hubdub officials, you will obviously gain street cred in your area of expertise -- politics, stock market, or technology, for example. Besides gaining some form of respect from your peers, credibility may also lead to more users coming to your Web site or blog. This, in theory, could be shaped into a business where a person's analytical capabilities are worth paying for.During the prediction and wagering process, the Hubdub site aggregates news stories and background data related to the predictions.Leveraging uncertainty appears to be the idea behind another Demo presenter, LiquidPlanner, a startup created by former Expedia, Microsoft, and Intel software engineers.What makes LiquidPlanner different, say company officials, is its use of "probablistic" scheduling tools.Rather than using project dates that are set in stone, the Liquid probablistic engine uses estimates that take into account project variables. This allows project teams to see a more dynamic timeline and understand at any single point where the project is headed with the idea that going down a wrong path can be stopped before it is too late.
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NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Irish rock band U2 is set to  explode on the road at the end of March, just in time for a  beleaguered concert industry desperate for a major  buzz-generating tour.
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Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bit stream. By Chris Anderson from Wired magazine.
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Travel: The experts' predictions for next year's hottest travel destinations
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Next year, our friends in China will be feting the Year of the Rat. We'll have no such luxury. Here in the USA, it'll be the Year of Getting Real. Or so says a brain trust of marketers, activists and cultural anthropologists who live to dissect our shopping, eating, viewing, networking and lifestyle habits.
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters Life!) - Prediction markets have been used to forecast election outcomes, football games and even the capture of Osama bin Laden.
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ÂHide The Truth, Entice The AudienceÂ seems to be a new method of getting sizeable audiences to flock to theatres.
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2007: Year of the dingbat Quotations It was the Greek dramatist Sophocles who once wrote: "A short saying often contains much wisdom."â¦
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Google's latest experiment in opening up its massive resources for the latest in knowledge and wisdom, has a familiar ring to it. And perhaps for that reason, the outcome of that experiment can be predicted.
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Will 2005 prove a better year than 2004? Will the ratio of hits show an upward trend? Well-known producers comment!
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Like baseball or the weather, the economy can be a difficult thing to predict. Nonetheless, hereâs a sampling of what economists expect for 2008.
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NASHVILLE (Billboard) - The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang trek was the top grossing tour of the year, according to numbers reported to Billboard Boxscore.
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StubHub, the fan's ticket marketplace, today announced the launch of StubHub Maps(TM), interactive seating maps that make it easy to compare and choose tickets for events at leading venues.
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Can search term data predict the next American Idol?
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Do you know how to spot the outperformers of tomorrow?
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From Coldplay to Outkast, the music industry is anticipating a year of major releases.