Briiefly at WiredUK

Hi All!

Great news. Briiefly just got mentioned by Rachel Botsman on WiredUK September issue, as one the "New Identity Brokers", in the article "Welcome to the New Reputation Economy".

Thank you very much for this recognition.

It's a major landmark for Briiefly and a sign that we are on the right path. This gave us even more energy to carry on with our vision and develop a great product.

Awesome!

Trust and Politics

What if politicians couldn't get elected if they weren't considered trustworthy enough...

In this period coming up to the American elections and following the recent Egyptian Presidential elections, I’ve been thinking about how politics and trust interact.

I know from the incessant babbling of the American news media that Congress isn’t exactly currying favor with the American people. If you need statistics though, here they are:

• 78.4% of Americans DISapprove of the job Congress does. 
• 64% of Americans "rate the honesty and ethical standards of members of Congress as "low" or "very low," tying the record "low"/"very low" rating Gallup has measured for any profession historically." 

I know from polling in Egypt conducted by JZ Analytics that Egyptians value personal trust (31%) in their potential President more than both the candidate’s economic stance (22%) or record and experience (19%).

Even globally, trust in government officials dropped the most year-on-year in the history of the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer (slide 21).

So what does this all mean?

We’re entrusting our governments to people who we don't really trust very much.

*Sigh* What are we to do?

Websites like factcheck.org or the Washington Post’s Pinocchio Rating are a good start towards getting politicians to be more honest, but they act only as watchdogs. UnitedRepublic.org moves in the right direction by working to take financial incentives out of the political process.

Here's an idea:

What if politicians were actually given scores and ratings for their behavior...

• How much money do they take from lobbyists?
• How often do they pass legislation?
• Do they vote differently based on who donates more money?
• Are they consistent on certain issues?

Those indicators could be compiled into a trust score that people might quickly and easily understand... hopefully involving themselves more in the political process at the same time.

With that type of information, people could make more informed decisions about their elected officials, perhaps forcing those politicians to make better choices, themselves. Eventually, candidates might even be restricted from running for office if they don’t have a high enough overall rating. Perhaps we’d have less legalized graft, more principled legislation, and less money-induced political gridlock.

Imagine that... politicians actually held accountable for their legislative and financial behavior.

I know this post may be controversial... Whether you've loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between, I'd love to hear from you - either here in the comments section, via email at jesse@briiefly.com, on twitter @briiefly, on linkedin or on facebook.

MIT-Portugal and Briiefly

Quick update: Briiefly is applying to the MIT-Portugal Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative. They're trying to encourage innovation with potentially world-changing initiatives. Briiefly is hoping to be one of the finalists.

We just posted a video on youtube if you'd like to see our 60-second pitch to gain entry to their bootcamp. What do you think?

In my next blogpost, I'm hoping to write about trust and politics... lots of "fun" links!

We'd like to cater Briiefly to your needs, so tell us what you think! Feel free to leave a message here in the comments section, via email at jesse@briiefly.com, on twitter @briiefly, on linkedin or on facebook.

What do YOU want to know?

Hello, again! Welcome back to the Briiefly Blog.

If you recall, Team Briiefly applied to the MassChallenge 2012 business incubator. Many thanks to all who voted, retweeted, or simply told others to vote for us!! We heard back late Sunday night and, unfortunately, did not make it to the second round. We'll receive more feedback on why we didn't make it towards the end of this month. I'll be sure to detail the inside scoop for you!

On a separate note, I've been meeting with many folks lately (lunches, coffees, etc.) who are interested in using Briiefly on their websites... but not necessarily to determine how trustworthy someone is in the traditional sense - for commercial purposes.

For example, one person recently inquired about using Briiefly to filter emergency calls for a digital call center he wants to create. The people with the highest trust scores are considered to give the most reliable information, and their information is accordingly weighted more than that from other people. While this brings up a whole host of issues ranging from appropriate prioritization of emergency calls to selection biases, it's an interesting (and unintended) use of Briiefly.

As you know, we aim to give people enough information so that they feel comfortable about the decisions they make and the interactions they have with other people. This information, aggregated into a profile, can be used in other ways, though.

What information would you want to know about someone else? 

Why? 

For what purpose?

We'd like to cater Briiefly to your needs, so tell us what you think! Feel free to leave a message here in the comments section, via email at jesse@briiefly.com, on twitter @briiefly, or now on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/briiefly.

Trust vs. Reputation

Welcome back to the Briiefly Blog!

Since applying to MassChallenge (vote for Briiefly after registering as an "observer" - open 'til May 1), we've been trying to get the word out more about what Briiefly intends to do and be: aggregate people's on- and offline identities, reputations, and behavior in order to become the fabric of trust for the web.

One issue has come up courtesy of Charles H. Green, of the TrustedAdvisor.com website: the difference between trust and reputation. This is from one of his comments on a fantastic blog post by Courtney Boyd Myers on how the sharing economy might make us more honest as people and web users. My thoughts come afterwards.

[To the author of the post]

"Your concluding line – 'When our reputation is our most valuable asset, the potential for trust-based technologies will be massive' – is dangerously optimistic.

 

"It's the same mistake Alan Greenspan made at a macro-economic level – assuming that investment bankers' concern for their professional reputation would serve as an effective check on selfish, anti-client behavior. It didn't.  [...]

 

"Behavior, not reputation, is what the sharing economy needs to focus on.  For one thing, one man's "honesty" is another man's lie. The ranks of insurance agents, mortgage brokers and stockbrokers are full of people you and I would argue are sleazy –but who see themselves as honest, and have plenty of industry recommendations to their credit. 

 

"Reputation is a valuable concept, useful in thinking about who has influence. But it's not the same as trust. Reputation is susceptible to gaming ("I'll rate you if you rate me") and to self-delusion. Behavior – not so much.  You did what you did. There's far less argument about facts than there is about opinions."    [source]

Charles is absolutely correct that a person's (Person A's) reputation is a combination of hearsay and recommendations. However, some parts of a reputation come from another person's (Person B's) past experiences dealing with Person A. While one man's honesty is another man's lie, Briiefly takes the hearsay, recommendations, and Person B's past experiences, quantifies them to make them readable by our algorithm, and adds Person A's past behavior (independent of Person B's opinion) to come out with Person A's reputation. 

Whew! That wasn't an easy paragraph to read. Writing it wasn't easy, either. So here's a line to sum up: Briiefly takes ratings, references, recommendations for a person, combines it with that person's past behaviors, and puts out a reputation profile to show that person's trustworthiness.

We've got academics researching the quantification of trustworthiness, and we'll publish our framework on trust soon. We'll be transparent about what we think is important and what isn't. In the meantime, stay posted for more updates on what we think about trust and reputation.

Every blog post takes time to write. Whether you've loved this post, hated it, or somewhere in between, I'd love to hear from you - either here in the comments section, via email at jesse@briiefly.com, on twitter @briiefly, or now on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/briiefly.

Briiefly Applies to MassChallenge 2012

That's right, folks. We at Briiefly have submitted our application to MassChallenge 2012, a 3-month long startup incubator program held in Boston, MA designed to help young companies become awesome young companies. They offer $1 million in cash awards and $4+ million in in-kind support... and they're a non-profit! Amazing program if you ask me. Follow them @MassChallenge or #MA2012.

Now that we've completed our application, our score is 90% determined. The other 10%?? Your votes!! That's right, we need YOU to help us get into the program.

If you've liked what we've written so far on the blog (and maybe even checked out our proof of concept at whytrusted.com), please go to: http://masschallenge.org/profile/briiefly, register to vote, look for our entry, vote, and then share with your networks.

While we would hope you'll give us 5 stars, we can't fully expect that from EVERY person. Just see what we're trying to do and be honest. No matter what, though, we would love it if you could share our application with your networks.

Every blog post takes time to write. Whether you've loved this post, hated it, or somewhere in between, I'd love to hear from you - either here in the comments section, via email at jesse@briiefly.com, on twitter @briiefly, or now on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/briiefly.

Briiefly Introduction: Part Deux

In my last post, I listed a few scenarios in which Briiefly could be used once we fully launch. This post will give some hints on what we propose to base our Trust Score.

Much like similar sites racing to become the standard for quantified trust and reputation, we will bring together certain indicators from your social networks (ebay satisfaction rating, number of LinkedIn recommendations, numbers of connections, etc.). As we partner with more websites that provide ratings or exercise quality control over their users, we'll be able to get better data, use better indicators, and give you a more relevant and accurate score. At the end of the day, if you leave constructive comments below online articles, enjoy providing accurate reviews on products you buy or services you use, or are transparent on your online dating profile, you’ll have no problem being seen as trustworthy online. 

People will appreciate your efforts and will want to interact more with you.

However, we also want to link things you do off-line with those on-line indicators. I won't go into much detail right now because, to be honest, we're not quite ready to release that part of Briiefly...

Over time, you’ll build a reputation online (just as you would offline) that lets people know you’re a good person. Offline, most people are trustworthy. But a few bad apples spoil collective levels of societal trust for us all. We hope that each of you will act as moderators across the web to filter out those who aren’t honest. Ultimately you will judge whether someone conducts him or herself in an unacceptable manner online. We want people (you) to feel more comfortable conducting their affairs, whatever they may be, on the information superhighway.

Every blog post takes time to write. Whether you've loved this post, hated it, or somewhere in between, I'd love to hear from you - either here in the comments section, via email at jesse@briiefly.com, or on twitter @briiefly.