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Twitter calculates reputation scores for its users

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Who has influence on Twitter?

Twitter not only knows the answer to that question. It comes up with a reputation score for users.

That’s how it knows which users to suggest in its ‘Who to follow’ section.

During an onstage interview that closed out the Web 2.0 Summit on Wednesday, John Battelle asked Twitter co-founder Evan Williams how it had developed such a knack for suggesting the right people.

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Williams said the San Francisco Internet company employs scientists and mathematicians who, in part, derive the suggestions from a reputation score they calculate for every user.

This is not unheard of. Start-up Klout has developed a formula to score social influence.

Now Williams said Twitter is wrestling with whether to make the information public. ‘It needs to evolve quite a bit more,’ he said.

But, ‘I think it would be cool,’ he said.

We think it would be tweet, er, sweet.

-- Jessica Guynn

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