Craig Newmark
2007-03-30 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

Many of the biggest challenges online — much like those in real life — revolve around the issues of trust and reputation. Who among the individuals, firms and institutions we deal with via the Internet should we trust and whose reputations are based on facts rather than mere rumor, groundless conjecture or outright lies?

We know how to deal with these questions in everyday life. Often, it means getting advice and recommendations from friends and acquaintances, whether it’s for a dry cleaner or a presidential candidate. As a species, we survive only through such collaboration.

It’s much the same in the digital world but because of the way digital technology increasingly energizes the opportunities, challenges and possibilities of our daily lives, it is becoming vastly more important that we develop analogous collaboration skills to getting credible, timely and useful advice and opinions from others.

Here are some of my thoughts on where this consideration might lead:

» In real life, we use driver’s licenses to prove who we are, at least in most situations. Online, that’s called a “digital certificate,” and we really need those to establish authoritatively who we are. Much of the technology exists, but there are some practical issues yet to be resolved, like certificate revocation.

» We’ll need neutral, independent reputation systems, like the ones in eBay or Amazon, but independent of any particular business. Looking at someone’s reputation could tell you what other people think about that person, and could help you make a decision regarding trust.

» A considerable problem on the ‘net already is that of professional disinformation and smear campaigns, just like in real life. That is, people post bad info in pursuit of various scams, including East European or West African scam gangs, to groups run by politicians. (Some people call’em “astroturfers;” some people call’em “swiftboaters.”) I think we will see within the next decade forms of collaborative filtering acting as BS screens, which will make it easy for people to figure when they’re getting scammed. That doesn’t replace good investigative journalism, but I see it evolving every day.

» New display devices for mobile phones will turn them into desktop replacements for many people. Promising technologies, starting to be delivered this year, greatly increase the effective screen size of phones.

We’re seeing flexible screens that can be scrolled out of the phone body, but also small projectors that can display larger images on a nearby wall. Perhaps most promising are the prototypes of devices that use lasers to draw images right on your eye. (Presumably, not involving inadvertent laser eye surgery!)

Imagine being able to use your cell phone to Google a firm or person you run into in a professional or social situation in which you can’t comfortably or quickly go to a laptop.

Success in using digital technology to advance the science of establishing trust and reputation will have implications in countless fields, including, but not limited to, commerce, communications, national security and law enforcement, education, government and politics, personal development and financial planning.

Before not too much longer, it will be seen as one of the biggest revolutions spawned by the digital revolution.

Craig Newmark is founder and customer service rep of Craig’s List.