Recently hit the echo chamber:
"The government is about to start opening up the process of reviewing
patents to the modern font of wisdom: the Internet.
The Patent and Trademark Office is starting a pilot project that will
not only post patent applications on the Web and invite comments but
also use a community rating system designed to push the most respected
comments to the top of the file, for serious consideration by the
agency's examiners. A first for the federal government, the system
resembles the one used by Wikipedia, the popular user-created online
encyclopedia. [....]"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030401263.html
