Trust and the Online Environment

This is more in the line of a hypothesis which I have been pondering.

The transmission of information between humans has been a characteristic of the human species since we began to form communities on the plains of Africa. We have developed ever more sophisticated means to transmit information between individuals, groups and generations allowing us to not only develop the tools for survival, but to make life more comfortable. This has in turn provides us, as a species, with the luxury of time to exchange esoteric ideas about subjects as broad as the origins and purpose of life, the development of meaningful existence and the role of relative moral basis for life.

Prior to the industrial revolution, these ideas were frequently spread within reasonably confined areas. The transmission of oral myths and legends were transmitted by the storytellers who shared with their audience a common set of beliefs and a largely shared worldview. From those times, right down to the industrial revolution ideas were generally shared and understood on the basis of common belief systems and worldviews. Interpretation of “scripture” for instance, was undertaken by the select few and the results proffered to a grateful community who frequently accepted said interpretation without question.

As the industrial revolution empowered the movement of people across the world, ideas were encountered that were foreign, that required deep consideration in order to understand how these new ideas impacted belief structures. A branch of specialists arose who acted as the translators between the new ideas. They provided an interpretation, and in many cases, a buffer which maintained a sense of “them and us” with respect to outside communities.

And then along came the World Wide Web. Individuals could scan ideas from anywhere in the world and integrate them into their own thinking / belief systems etc.

In recent joint civil / military exercises based on large scale disaster response scenarios, observers noted that the development of trust between representatives of culturally disparate organisations appears to be a necessary step in the development of a shared basis of action to respond to exercise situations. Behaviour such as sharing family photographs, life experiences and world views provided an opportunity for individuals to build a cultural understanding from which they could establish a sufficiently robust relationship to work through the issues and challenges associated with the scenario.

A similar behaviour may be perceived in the rise of the so called Web 2.0 phenomenon.  As shown in the figure below, a range of capabilities have been developed to share information between individuals and groups. The base layer of the triangle shows examples of the types of technologies developed to share information through the transmission of hard copy media, stories and pictures.

Layer 2 of the triangle depicts some examples of the technologies which arose in the “Web 1.0” environment which sped up the sharing of information. The web based sharing of information resulted in rapid transmission of information across global and cultural boundaries. Ideas, esoteric concepts and human beliefs are shared rapidly in a global context. However this information was generally shared in a vacuum of understanding about the cultural foundations which underlay the derivation of the shared ideas.

The recent advent of the “web 2.0” range of social networking and discussion technologies (layer 3 of the triangle)  appear to be providing a basis for sharing deeper world views and establishing cultural understanding. Ideas are then able to be shared in the context of the cultural values and world views of the originator of the ideas.  The subtle nuances which are basis of cultural differences between individuals, organisations and cultures are consequently better understood and as a consequence, trust, understanding, and ultimately the development of knowledge (layer 4 and 5 of the triangle) are enhanced. It appears that Web 2.0 may be an equivalent human response to “pulling out the family photograph.”

A hypothesis may therefore be proposed which suggests that the sharing of values is an absolute requirement for the development of trust and understanding between individuals and groups and the consequent development of knowledge, whether that knowledge is a shared basis for responding to a disaster or sharing deep philosophical ideas about the future direction of the human species.

About slade

Slade is an Enterprise Architect, Business Analyst and Project Manager with extensive experience in the Defence, National Security, Emergency Services and secure systems environment. Slade has been in the IT industry since 1988, and is experienced in systems engineering, systems architecture, systems integration, security assessment and development of sustainment frameworks for new systems. He is also a thought leader in human factors for the design of critical decision support systems and environments and the development of enterprise and solution level architecture for high information workload environments. Slade is the Director of EcoThought Pty Ltd