Also, at my urging, the company recently cast a wider net to capture bloggers at mainstream news outlets to its already substantive database of independent bloggers.

FORBES: A Trio of Cool PR Tools

The database is run by the independent research organization that Ma directs: the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing, founded in 2006.

FORBES: Prize Winner Takes on Global Supply Chains

We relied on data from the Aviation Safety Network, a private, independent initiative founded in 1996 to keep a public database of accidents.

BBC: A record year in airline safety

The Corporate Library has built up a wealth of data on executive pay and contracts, and a database of the myriad ways in which directors are connected, rather than independent.

ECONOMIST: Face value: Corporate Governance Mom | The

Thus, unless one views every single benefit given to and received by a physician or hospital as part of a cynical effort to influence the independent judgment of physicians, it is impossible to gauge whether any payments in the database are problematic, or instead appear to be reasonable, justified, and even beneficial for society as a whole.

FORBES: ProPublica's 'Dollars for Docs': Will The Physician Payments Sunshine Provisions Clear The Haze?

My second suggestion is to require banks to submit standardized credit information about their borrowers, as well as the associated default history, to an independent third party that could cleanse the data, ensure its anonymity and add it to a national database.

FORBES: Rating Agencies Should Get A Death Sentence