Prediction Market Industry Association&#8217-s goals as stated last year:

1) Create a central, standardized registry of available prediction stocks and contracts from different prediction markets. This open central resource will help demonstrate the wide coverage of available predictions, facilitate search, and make prediction market data more easily available to researchers, the media, and the public at large. Participation will be entirely voluntary, and the program will leave each publisher in complete control of the commercial terms for accessing its data.

2) Offer a directory of its members, a library of core readings, and other such resources enabling newcomers to quickly learn about the field and find their way among the various worldwide offerings.

3) Provide a consensual venue for sharing industry-relevant information and announcements, and organize regular meetings of the industry to discuss common opportunities.

4) Lobby for a clear legal and regulatory environment conducive to the productive adoption of prediction markets by individuals, firms, and governments, and ensuring free access to these markets by traders.

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Reality Check:

1. Null. No central database. The idea sucks, anyway. As for the &#8220-standard&#8221- prediction markets (a good idea, that one), only InTrade and Reality Markets participate. (NewsFutures is AWOL, even though their CEO heads the PMIA.)
2. Null. The only resources listing both &#8220-members&#8221- and &#8220-core readings&#8221- of the field of prediction markets is CFM &#8212-as of today.
3. Null. The best &#8220-venues&#8221- for live discussions on prediction markets are: Koleman Strumpf&#8217-s conference(s), the ACM WorkShops on Prediction Markets, Tim O&#8217-Reilly&#8217-s conferences (Tech:Money, CI Foo Camp, etc.), and the FIA&#8217-s conferences. The other conferences are payola conferences set up by mediocre individuals or organizations who really don&#8217-t care about prediction markets &#8212-but want to make a quick buck riding the prediction market hype.
4. Null. I&#8217-m more interested in iMEGA and RGA.

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And the PMIA does not get the key individuals: Adam Siegel and Nigel Eccles &#8212-to drop only 2 names.

The Prediction Market Industry Association is an ambulatory joke, so far.

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UPDATE: Deep Throat agrees with me.

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