http://www.mindjack.com/feature/spin.html: "Spinning the web: The realities of Online Reputation Management" by Nicholas Carroll.

Summary: Human beings take various cues in determining the reputation of person/organization they interact with. Direct interaction (face to face, or by phone) is very successful model, and involves taking cues from gestures, facial expressions etc. How did it change when email, usenet, web (and now weblogs, wiki) happened? Since people depend on written word alone, the reputation management becomes trickier. It can make or break a successful web venture.

The article talks about how web affected industries' reputation: For travel industry, it was downside and led to realistic price levels. On other hand home retailing industries such as L.L.Bean etc. could manage and enhance their reputation.

Two news articles related to facial expressions today:

"Secret revealed of Mona Lisa smile":
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=379381.

Also: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?artid=37803371: "Scientists Unmask Face-Reading Secrets." This one even has reference to how some buddhist monks can accurately understand facial muscle contractions that last only 1/25th of second.


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