Trust research and Nobel prize

Leave a reply

Elinor Ostrom got the Nobel prize for Economics!
I think I read some of her insights about trust and reciprocity! Check her book “Trust and reciprocity: interdisciplinary lessons from experimental research”!
She is also the first woman to win the Nobel prize in Economics!

From her wikipedia page:
Ostrom is considered one of the leading scholars in the study of common pool resources. In particular, Ostrom’s work emphasizes how humans and ecosystems interact to provide for long run sustainable resource yields. Forests, fisheries, oil fields, grazing lands, and irrigation systems, among others, all exhibit the characteristics of common pool resources and Ostrom’s work has highlighted how humans have created diverse institutional arrangements over natural resources for thousands of years that have prevented ecosystem collapse. Yet, Ostrom is quick to point out that, while successes are abundant, humans are also responsible for countless ecosystem collapses. Her current work emphasizes the multifaceted nature of human-ecosystem interaction and argues against any singular “panacea” attempt to solve individual social-ecological system problems.

Paper by Lada Adamic “Surfing a web of trust: reputation and reciprocity on CouchSurfing.com”

Leave a reply
Author: :en:User:Sadi Carnot; Made using MS Wo...
Image via Wikipedia

By Debra Lauterbach; Hung Truong; Tanuj Shah; Lada A. Adamic
Download as PDF

Abstract: Reputation mechanisms are essential for online transactions, where the parties have little prior experience with one another. This is especially true when transactions result in offline interactions. There are few situations requiring more trust than letting a stranger sleep in your home, or conversely, staying on someone else’s couch. Couchsurfing.com allows individuals to do just this. The global CouchSurfing network displays a high degree of reciprocal interaction and a large strongly connected component of individuals surfing the globe. This high degree of interaction and reciprocity among participants is enabled by a reputation system that allows individuals to vouch for one another. We find that the strength of a friendship tie is most predictive of whether an individual will vouch for another. However, vouches based on weak ties outnumber those between close friends. We discuss these and other factors that could inform a more robust reputation system.

Notes: Can an online social network build enough trust to allow strangers to sleep on each others’ couches?

“The Web as random acts of kindness”, Zittrain talk at TED

2 Replies

His point: The Internet is made up of millions of disinterested acts of kindness, curiosity and trust. Summarized in this passage: “So it’s kinda like your house catches on fire. The bad news is there is no fire brigade. The good news is random people operate from nowhere, put out the fire and leave without expecting payment or prize.”
Brilliant examples of collaboration, ranging from “how the internet was created” to Wikipedia (and its presence in chinese restaurant menus), from a site to collect Cats that look like Hitler to Couchsurfing.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Links for 2009 10 06

Leave a reply

Links for 2009 10 06

Leave a reply

Links for 2009 09 29

Leave a reply
  • Post scarcity – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    "The term post-scarcity economics may be somewhat paradoxical according to mainstream economics. The reason being that scarcity values are a defining feature of contemporary economic applications. However, the paradox is resolved by considering that some resources will always remain scarce, such as human attention and time". Until you reach Enlightenment of course, then also attention and time will be abundant … ;)

Links for 2009 09 21

Leave a reply
  • Dell Says It Has Earned $3 Million From Twitter – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com
    Wondering if this is true, if this is the entire story and, if yes, why Dell is giving up this info to its competitors.
    "Dell said that the company had earned $3 million in revenue directly through Twitter since 2007, when it started posting coupons and word of new products on the microblogging site."

  • Social networks for a good cause – growth, culture and impact : crisscrossed blog
    Anand Giridharadas “Behind Facebook’s Success: It Takes a Village“ argues that being in a social network is like living in a village, where you can share your thoughts, emotions, news, and more – something like entertaining neighbourhood relationships, with the difference that geographic location, physical distances and time do not matter anymore and interactions can occur on a global scale, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Once you establish your network with a multitude of members, “you are compelled, as in the village, to know their business. It’s strangely nice.”

Suspicion XKCD

Leave a reply


One of my biggest fear in electronic communication (email mainly and not for dating, eh) is “Am i not interacting electronically with a bot, am I?”. Creating bots able to appear human (Turing test) is a fascinating research area, one I would like to be in, next life. ;)