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Transcript of Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. Trust Among Strangers...
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Trust Among StrangersTrust Among Strangers
Thomas EricksonThomas Erickson
Social Computing GroupSocial Computing Group
IBM T. J. Watson Research CenterIBM T. J. Watson Research Center
Revisting Online TrustRevisting Online Trust
CSCW 2006 WorkshopCSCW 2006 Workshop
Banff, November 4, 2006Banff, November 4, 2006
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Overview
The Blender• The story
• An analysis
Trust Among Strangers• The trust of sidewalks
Designing for Trust• Social proxies
• Some conjectures
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
The Blender: the Story
The Purchase• At a local kitchen equipment story from ‘Carl’, a clerk
• Factors: look, brand, Carl’s recommendation
• Outcome: a new blender, a sales slip (and a warranty)
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
The Blender: the Story
The Problem• It broke, after about 6 months (really, 6 weeks)
• I had lost the sales slip
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
The Blender: the Story
The Resolution• On a visit to the store for a different matter I saw ‘Carl’
and chatted with him about it and discovered the lost sales slip was not a big problem
• Factors: Carl ‘recognized’ me; also, possibly:(leeway under store policy); (Waring or perhaps the distributor’s policy)
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
The Blender: an Analysis
The Riegelsberger Framework• Signals from trustee and context
- symbols
- symptoms
• Warrants (why trustee may act to fulfill trust)
- embeddedness: temporal, social and institutional
- intrinsic: ability, internalized norms, benevolence (‘manifested’ through interpersonal cues)
Problems I had applying the framework• Not sure on what is trustee and what is context
• Difficult to distinguish between symbols and symptoms
• Treatment of signals and warrants not parallel
• The three types of embeddedness difficult to entangle
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
The Blender: an Analysis
A few thoughts• It seemed easier to focus on objects and entities
- the blender, the sales person, the store
• These are levels of analysis that may vary systematically
Kitchen Window Amazon eBay
• It also struck me that we can make a distinction between natural trust and artificial trust
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Trust Among Strangers
Jane Jacobs and the Trust of Sidewalks
The trust of a city street is formed over time from many, many little public sidewalk contacts. It grows out of people stopping by at the bar for a beer, getting advice from the grocer and giving advice to the newsstand man, comparing opinions with other customers at the bakery and nodding hello to the two boys drinking pop on the stoop. ... Most of it is ostensibly utterly trivial but the sum is not trivial at all. The sum of such casual, public contact at a local level – most of it fortuitous, most of it associated with errands, all of it metered by the person concerned and not thrust upon him by anyone – is a feeling for the public identity of people, a web of public respect and trust, and resource in time of personal or neighborhood need. (p 56)
Photo © 2004 Project for Public Spaces, Inc. www.pps.org
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Trust Among Strangers
Triangulation and engagement• Triangulation: Events that cause strangers to
interact with one another
• Note the possibility for degrees of engagement
- Passerby
- Watcher
- Participant
- (Payee!)
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Trust Among Strangers
Non-entangling relationships• According to Jacobs, one important thing that
makes sidewalk interactions ‘work’ is that they are ‘non-entangling’
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Trust Among Strangers
In a previous workshop I argued• The trust exhibited among strangers in
face to face interactions is supported by social norms
• Social norms work among strangers, even when the possibility of “enforcement” by an authority is distant or non-existent
• And that social norms are supported by visible cues, which include
- cues embedded in the environment
-and behavioral cues from people
Photo © 2004 Project for Public Spaces, Inc. www.pps.org
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
Q: How do we design systems that support trust amongst strangers?
A: Support the development of ‘non-entangling’ familiarity by making people visible to one another
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
Visibility via social proxies• A social proxy is a minimalist
graphical representations that make people and their activities more visible
An example for a multi-room text-based chat system. . .
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
A social proxy• A conversation is represented by a circle
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
A social proxy• People are represented by colored dots
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
A social proxy• People in the ‘current’ conversation are
shown inside the circle...
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
A social proxy• People in other conversations are
shown outside the circle
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
A social proxy• When a person is ‘active’ in the chat
(types, clicks or moves the mouse), their dot moves towards the center of the circle...
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
A social proxy• So an active conversation in which lots
of people are speaking or listening looks something like this
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
A social proxy• As a person is idle, their dot slowly drifts outward
(over the course of about twenty minutes)
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
A social proxy• An inactive conversation (but one in
which people are still ‘around’) looks something like this
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
The Babble system• The social proxy was implemented
as part of the Babble system, a persistent chat application
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
The Babble system• Over the course of five years it was
deployed to about two dozen groups
• And it was generally quite successful:participants liked the proxy
“It makes me feel like people are in the room with me”
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
The Bottom Line on Babble• The Babble proxy was easy to learn• Participants used it,
often in unexpected ways• And it seemed to be have interesting
social and experiential aspects
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
Other Social Proxies
• Design sketch for a lecture proxy
Giving a talk during a conference call
• Design issues
- it makes the lecture ‘norm’ visible
- and can serve as a resource that participants can use to steer their own interaction
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
Other Social Proxies
• Design sketch for an online meeting
A ‘meeting room’ with a shared whiteboard and chat facility.
• Design issues
- Spatial access to special functionality
- Ability to (publicly) assume role
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
Other Social Proxies• For search• For auctions• For wikis
For any online situation in which people are involved, there are ways to make them and their activities mutually visible
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
Six Conjectures
1. Support visibility• People need to see one another, and the activities being engaged in
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
Six Conjectures
2. Support recognizability• This does not mean that real names or personal details must be revealed, but
simply that participants must have a distinct and persistent identity that makes it possible for them to be recognized as the same person, over time and across places
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
Six Conjectures
3. Support Non-Entangling, Minimal Interactions• If one can have an interaction, without fear of further entanglement, one is more
likely to become enter into it.
• Interestingly, online spaces rarely support minimal interactions. Often, the most minimal interaction one can engage in with another is to start a conversation – which is not very minimal at all.
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
Six Conjectures
4. Support a Hierarchy of Involvement• Though people rarely come to an online space seeking to become involved, they
can be lured into greater involvement, through a series of progressive (and positive) interactions
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
Six Conjectures
5. Support triangulation• In line with Whyte’s observation that external events can cause strangers to
begin interacting with one another, designers of online systems might think of online equivalents. Scheduled events, or activities, or even things like interactive polls have been used in online systems to catalyze activity.
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Designing for Trust
Six Conjectures
6. Provide traces of past activity (especially good behavior)• As noted in the discussion of the blender story, trust doesn’t occur on its own.
Evidence of various sorts – from memories, to material tokens like sales slips that serve as ‘proof’ – provides a sort of scaffolding for trust. As trust grows stronger, it can span larger gaps in evidence, but at the beginning best not stretch it too far.
Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.
Thank You!
Thanks to • those involved in the Babble project...
Erin Bradner, Jason Ellis, Brent Hailpern, Christine Halverson, Wendy Kellogg, Mark Laff, John Richards, David N. Smith, Cal Swart, Tracee Wolf, and several generations of users
• ...and to my colleagues at IBM for support and inspiration
The Social Computing Group
Next Generation Web Interfaces
• ...and The Project for Public Spaces (http://www.pps.org)
For many photos (as noted)
For more information• [email protected]
• http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/