Product Reviews: Part 1
Since submitting my first book review in 1999, the Amazon review process has been an interesting one. At this point in time, Amazon shows that I have 85 product reviews to my name. Apparently, this total number is based on the reviews currently available via the Amazon web site; I have written several additional reviews that I have since deleted due in part to my decision to no longer review works of fiction.
In September 2008, I wrote my first review for the Amazon Vine program. Currently, Amazon provides the following definition of this program: "Amazon Vine™ is a program that enables a select group of Amazon customers to post opinions about new and pre-release items to help their fellow customers make educated purchase decisions. Customers are invited to become Amazon Vine™ Voices based on the trust they have earned in the Amazon community for writing accurate and insightful reviews. Amazon provides Amazon Vine™ members with free copies of products that have been submitted to the program by vendors. Amazon does not influence the opinions of Amazon Vine™ members, nor do we modify or edit their reviews."
Almost exactly one year prior to my first Amazon Vine submission, I had written a review for Smart Enough Systems: How to Deliver Competitive Advantage by Automating Hidden Decisions at the request of one of the authors, James Taylor, Vice President of Product Marketing at Fair Isaac (now FICO). In his email to me, he mentioned his favorable opinion of my earlier May 2007 review of Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning, by Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris, a book in a roughly similar genre.