The problem with asking for reputation points in exchange for services is that you're really just asking for payment. A lot of the things people do that deserve payment would be free with nothing asked in return
The system should also be anonymous so that it's not even possible to get points as payment, otherwise the Donald Trumps of the world would pull some marketing trick or make some system to get all the points and all the money, assuming it's ever worth something. We want a system that would have put mother Teresa or the google of old on top, just on their ability to reach out and positively influence so many people
True, if there's any way to game the system or brute force your reputation, it's going to cause problems. Digg had issues with power users getting paid to post, and even news aggregators like Reddit and HN can be abused if people have their friends upvote submissions. People like sharing things they find interesting/important or have an emotional response to, as twitter has proven.
If you search a business' name on twitter you'll get some sort of consensus on what people think about it. This stuff isn't aggregated in a way that is really helpful, though. That's is what my startup is trying to solve - http://moodstir.com. When a company like Netflix pisses off its customers and they are willing to tweet about it, others considering using the service ought to be able to find out the general emotional stance customers have towards the service.
The system should also be anonymous so that it's not even possible to get points as payment, otherwise the Donald Trumps of the world would pull some marketing trick or make some system to get all the points and all the money, assuming it's ever worth something. We want a system that would have put mother Teresa or the google of old on top, just on their ability to reach out and positively influence so many people