Craig Newmark of Craigslist is thinking about a better way to solve the world's problems. Let me state an important rule that everybody seems to forget.
I don't trust you and you are not my friend. But.
If I can't say this at any time about anybody then all of the reputation management that we have in social software begins to resemble that episode of the Twilight Zone where little Anthony Fremont was the king of the world and because of his powers, he made everybody act happy all of the time. That's what Facebook is becoming - a shiny happy place full of people you can't get rid of. I think it's kinda creepy when everybody can only vote to like you.
Chris Hughes is another chap out to change the world for the better with a venture called Jumo. My first piece of advice to him is that if he expects to do global development the first thing he needs is an online distributed way to develop global consensus. It's going to be impossible until he builds an XRepublic sort of system. And one of the keys to the success of an XRepublic sort of system is reputation management.
Why don't I like you? Well, it's not that I don't like you - it's that I know you and I can only trust you in certain ways. How do I trust you? Let me count the ways.
I can trust you with my girlfriend, but I can't trust you with my car. You're an honest sort of fellow, but you honestly cannot drive worth beans. You have impeccable taste in restaurants, but really, you're a slob.
Now how many websites would I have to check you out at before I can make sense of all that. Match.com, jalopnic, yelp and where else? This is the problem. All of these social websites are one-dimensional. And even that super-duper dating sight looks at 23 dimensions of what? Stuff that gets you towards a single end, LoveRomanceMarriage. So if it takes six months for you folks to find a date, how long is it going to take you to change the world?
It seems to me, primarily because I'm an amateur philosopher, that if you don't go directly for the jugulars of religion, politics, class, language and money, you are only playing suburban weekend games. How am I going to get a Sikh in Iran to trust and give support to a Hindu in the Sudan? Think you can negotiate that reputation via email or a conference call? This is another case for a system I'd like to see called a Lorite Interrogator. It would help us to understand the possibilities and the difficulties of starting and maintaining relationships of trust. Worldviews in conflict can negotiate on narrow planes of agreement, but they don't have to be friends.
There's nothing more repulsive to me than listening to pro atheletes apologize for their indiscretions off the field. I don't care what Tiger Woods does in bed, I care what he does on the golf course. Everybody is offensive to somebody in some way but very valuable in another way. Our media coverage is all wrong because it needs star quality to sell. The star quality has become more important than the skill quality.
We don't trust the mainstream media primarily because they try to turn all of our diverse skills and qualities into something palatable for everyone. The fewer qualities we capture in the digital world, the more we follow in those shallow footsteps.
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