Sunbelt Conference

Posted by: Alla on: March 17, 2006

• In: sxd | thoughts
• Leave a Comment

I am going to be attending the Annual Sunbelt Social Networking Conference this year from April 25-30. Its in Vancouver this year, so I get to visit someplace new :) Here is my abstract:

The World Wide Web is filled with unreliable information, unscrupulous merchants, and malicious attacks. As a response, an increasing number of commercial websites have set up reputation systems in order to aid customers in evaluating products and services, as well as increase trust in the company. This paper proposes that we leverage an individual’s social network to extend beyond localized and branded reputation systems in the evaluation of website authenticity and reliability. This paper will present historical data from early print culture to demonstrate that people have formerly relied on social networks to negotiate saturated and uncertain information environments. Unreliable information was evaluated through the transfer of trust inherent in personal networks to entities outside of the network. Furthermore, current research findings indicate that individuals continue to rely on trust transfer via social networks for information evaluation in complex environments such as the Internet. Drawing on historical experience, this paper will discuss how social networks can be leveraged to create a more trustworthy and reliable environment in the new print medium, the Internet.

Advertisement