by Troi » Wed Jan 22, 2014 5:48 am
Askville is a user-driven research site founded by Amazon.com and opened to the public on December 8, 2006.Askville was co-founded by Korean-American former investment banker Joseph Park, previously co-founder of Kozmo.com, a now-defunct delivery service that is held up as an example of dot-com era excesses. The documentary film e-Dreams(2001) portrays the fate of the company. Amazon.com was an investor in Kozmo.com.Unlike the defunct Google Answers service, Askville is designed to run much like a computer game. Users gain or lose "experience points" in particular topics as they answer questions in those topics, depending on how good their answer is. Users also receive "quest gold" by asking and answering questions, and by voting on the worth of other people's answers. In the past, these coins could be redeemed for items in an Askville store. The store is out of stock at present and there is no indication when, or if, it will open again.