This new publication from Springer, LNCS 2246, offers a number of interesting papers on the many facets of trust in the network society. Here are a few of the paper titles:

Trust Rules for Trust Dilemmas
Trust and Distrust Definitions
The Socio-cognitive Dynamics of Trust: Does Trust Create Trust?
Belief Revision Process Based on Trust: Agents Evaluating Reputation of Information Sources
Adaptive Trust and Co-operation
Experiments in Building Experiential Trust in a Society of Objective-Trust Based Agents
Learning to Trust
Learning Mutual Trust
Distributed Trust in Open Multi-agent Systems

Trust in Cyber-societies: Integrating the Human and Artificial Perspectives | Springer LINK

"The network is the pervasive organizational image of the new millennium. This book examines one particular kind of network - the 'knowledge network' - whose primary mandate is to create and disseminate knowledge based on multidisciplinary research that is informed by problem-solving as well as theoretical agendas. In their examination of five knowledge networks based in Canadian universities, and in most cases working closely with researchers in developing countries, the authors demonstrate the ability of networks to cross disciplinary boundaries, to blend the operational with the theoretical, and to respond to broad social processes. Operating through networks, rather than through formal, hierarchical structures, diverse communities of researchers create different kinds of knowledge and disseminate their results effectively across disciplinary, sectoral, and spatial boundaries. Analysis of networks in health, environment, urban, and educational fields suggests that old categories of 'north' and 'south' are becoming blurred, and that the new structures of knowledge creation and dissemination help to sustain collaborative research."

Networks of Knowledge: Collaborative Innovation in International Learning

Description: "To what degree should we rely on our own resources and methods to form opinions about important matters? To what degree should we depend on various authorities, such as a recognized expert or a social tradition? In this provocative account of intellectual trust and authority, Richard Foley argues that it can be reasonable to have intellectual trust in oneself even though it is not possible to provide a defense of the reliability of one's faculties, methods, and opinions that does not beg the question. Moreover, he shows how this account of intellectual self-trust can be used to understand the degree to which it is reasonable to rely on alternative authorities."

A sample chapter is available. Published in October 2001 by Cambridge University Press.

Intellectual Trust in Oneself and Others

In a unique study that will become a rich source of ideas for professionals and anyone interested in fostering creative work in the arts and sciences, Michael P. Farrell looks at the group dynamics in six collaborative circles ... [among them] C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Inklings .... He demonstrates how the unusual interactions in these collaborative circles drew out the creativity in each member. Farrell also presents vivid narrative accounts of the roles played by the members of each circle. He considers how working in such circles sustains the motivation of each member to do creative work; how collaborative circles shape the individual styles of the persons within them; how leadership roles and interpersonal relationships change as circles develop; and why some circles flourish while others flounder.

Collaborative Circles: Friendship Dynamics and Creative Work

Educators lament the embarrassing results when once-touted educational web sites are silently replaced by ... shall we say ... recreational web sites. A notable excerpt/quote:

"For the first time in history, domains are expiring at a faster rate than they are being sold."

Is this actually true? Has anyone seen independent verification of this claim? If so, do we really need more TLDs?

A new twist on cyber-squatting?

To start 2002, Edge editor John Brockman asks each of the usual suspects to pose an important question and explain/justify its relevance. Here's a sampling.

Ray Kurzweil asks the fundamental, "Who am I? What am I?" Brian Greene ponders the concepts of space and time. Brian Eno asks, "Why do we decorate?" Danny Hillis asks, "Why do people like music?" Steven Pinker wonders what truly shapes the human mind. John Markoff: "can wealth be distributed?" MIT's Seth Lloyd wonders if the universe is actually a quantum computer. Gregory Benford wonders if wormholes might be real. Richard Dawkins: "how different could life have been?" Actor Alan Alda wonders, "what is the nature of fads?" George Dyson: "where are They (the aliens)?" Freeman Dyson: "why am I me?" Douglas Rushkoff: "why do we tell stories?" Daniel Dennett wonders how the brain encodes semantic information. and many more.

Edge 96

Abstract: The authors examine the experience of the residents of Netville, a suburban neighborhood with access to some of the most advanced new communication technologies available, and how this technology affected the amount of contact and support exchanged with members of their distant social networks. Focusing exclusively on friends and relatives external to the neighborhood of Netville, we analyze "community" as relations that provide a sense of belonging rather than as a group of people living near each other. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is treated as one of several means of communication used in the maintenance of social networks. Contrary to expectations that the Internet encourages a "global village," those ties that previously were "just out of reach" geographically, experience the greatest increase in contact and support as a result of access to CMC.

27 double-spaced pages in Acrobat PDF. Citations include Don Norman, Howard Rheingold, Marc Smith and Peter Kollock. Several of the references look particularly interesting.

Long Distance Community in the Network Society [PDF]

Abstract: Social scientists are increasingly interested in new organizational forms -- labeled epistemic communities, knowledge networks, or communities of practice depending on the discipline. These new organizational forms are made possible by new communication technologies, but they can be difficult to study qualitatively, often because their human, social, cultural or symbolic capital is transmitted over significant distances with technologies that do not carry the full range of human expressions that a researcher using participant observation or ethnography hopes to experience. Qualitative methods are desirable for rendering rich data on human interaction, but alone are ill equipped for studying community life conducted in diverse formal and informal organizations and over many new media. Social network analysis is desirable for rendering an overarching sketch of social interaction, but alone is ill equipped for giving detail on incommensurate yet meaningful relationships. I propose ?Network Ethnography? as a synergistic research design that synthesizes these two methods, using the strengths of each to make up for the weaknesses of the other. Network ethnography uses social network analysis to justify case selection for ethnography, facilitating the qualitative study of the varied organizational forms of knowledge networks.

42 double-spaced pages in Acrobat PDF format. The bibliography includes Manuel Castells, John Seely Brown, Paul Duguid, and numerous other authors whose work looks interesting and relevant.

Network Ethnography and the Hypermedia Organization: New Organizations, New Media, New Methods [PDF]

Overdue for more than a week, the latest First Monday is now available. This issue has a number of worthwhile articles. Have a look. The table of contents is included below.

Volume 7, Number 1 - January 7th 2002

Sleepless in Belgrade: A Virtual Community during War
"I don't watch TV to like learn anything": The Leisure Use of TV and the Internet
Mapping the Information Society Literature: Topics, Perspectives, and Root Metaphors
Object Lessons: Critical Visions of Educational Technology
Finding Balance: The Vices of Our "Versus"
Globalization of Information: Intellectual Property Law Implications
Internet the Globalizer, and the Impossibility of the Impossibility of the Global Dialog
Music in the Age of Free Distribution: MP3 and Society

First Monday, January 2002

Cooperation can flourish if the public-spirited majority can punish freeloaders, say Swiss economists. People will pay to punish - suggesting that their notions of fairness outweigh selfish considerations. The work may help explain why people cooperate in society. ...

(Published on 10 January 2002 in Nature Science Update. Subscription not required for access, although there is a related technical article in the subscription journal _Nature_.)

Prosperity through punishment: Retribution can breed cooperation