Questia, Social Captial Metrics, etc.

Questia Announces College Students' Top 10 Books - Questia provides a "revealing look at what topics and sources are providing research paper fodder for [student papers] nationwide"  Thinking back to my thoughts on Amazon Citations, services like Technorati and AllConsuming.net (which appears to be down right now), and the potential of Google's book related activities, I'm wondering if folks are on the very off adding a very valuable metric (but perhaps not yet understood) ... a measure of influence ... a little like what has been available for research papers for ages.  In an age of wikis, the Creative Commons and social technology, I think it will be crucial to have respectable, non-commercial stats that guide us toward valued sources of content.  Sure there's already happing at a largely primitive states with search results relevance derived from linked to sources, but I think we're on the cusp of something much more pervasive ... something that taps into the history of societal interaction.  I'm just not sure what to make of it or how it will all fall into place, but I believe that it is going to be big!