Disclosed is a system, method, and program storage device of aggregating
opinions comprising consolidating a plurality of expressed opinions on
various dimensions of topics as discrete probability distributions,
generating an aggregate opinion as a single point probability
distribution by minimizing a sum of weighted divergences between a
plurality of the discrete probability distributions, and presenting the
aggregate opinion as a Bayesian network, wherein the divergences comprise
Kullback-Liebler distance divergences, and wherein the expressed opinions
are generated by experts and comprise opinions on sentiments of products
and services. Moreover, the aggregate opinion predicts success of the
products and services. Furthermore, the experts are arranged in a
hierarchy of knowledge, wherein the knowledge comprises the various
dimensions of topics for which opinions may be expressed upon.