The December 18, 2000 Patent Application

What It Predicted:

The December, 2000 patent application described an Internet credibility framework that anticipated core elements of Wikipedia’s architecture — before Wikipedia launched. It outlined how digital platforms could use network science and human heuristics to manufacture scalable trust through expectation-fulfillment.

Network Science: The filing outlined scale-free network structures, hub-and-spoke credibility propagation, and mechanisms for organic self-organization — years ahead of Barabási's popularization of network theory.

Behavioral Economics: It cited the use of cognitive heuristics (representativeness, availability, framing) to reinforce perceived credibility and described how content expectations could be shaped through predictable structures and semantics.

The Result: The patent application effectively predicted not just Wikipedia’s rise, but the core mechanisms behind all successful user-trusted content networks. Though ultimately rejected for being "too wide," its ideas are now mathematically validated and core to the PediaNetwork® platform.

Read the white paper summary here or request a private briefing.