There is currently a great deal of interest in the science of networks and self-organizing behaviors. There is general acknowledgement that we currently--in Western Society, at least--suffer from information overload--too much information, too fast. Weblogs provide some possibility for locating trusted experts and individuals with compatible interests. News aggregation and RSS make it possible to organize weblog feeds for instant delivery.
But weblogs are not the final answer certainly, in locating trusted expertise, in generating social capital, and in bringing together like-minded individuals interested in engaging in civic society. Blogs are haphazard, disruptive, and casual. Someone who precisely fills the need for knowledge, connections, etc. of you and your group may have a blog for years and you will never find them.
Ken Jordan, Jan Hauser, and Steven Foster, members of an ad hoc group called ‘Link Tank’ have developed a report on The Augmented Social Network: Building Identity and Trust into the next-generation Internet.
This paper proposes the creation of an Augmented Social Network (ASN) that would build identity and trust into the architecture of the Internet, in the public interest, in order to facilitate introductions between people who share affinities or complimentary capabilities across social networks. The ASN has three main objectives: 1) To create an Internet-wide system that enables more efficient and effective knowledge sharing between people across institutional, geographic, and social boundaries. 2) To establish a form of persistent online identity that supports the public commons and the values of civil society. 3) To enhance the ability of citizens to form relationships and self-organize around shared interests in communities of practice in order to better engage in the process of democratic governance. In effect, the ASN proposes a form of “online citizenship” for the Information Age.
Online identity and building trust on the Internet are critical factors for enhancing knowledge, building community, and developing new structures for promoting civic society. In addition, as this paper proposes, persistent online identity, combined with reputation tracking, and brokered introductions might be a way to increase knowledge sharing, reduce ‘reinventing the wheel’ in unconnected groups, and broaden communities of interest and practice. In addition, it may be a way to overcome issues that arise as the web gets more crowded, that some individuals are always recognized as the ‘go-to’ person in a certain subject area (because they were in the past, or were on a closely related topic, because they’re a prolific writer, because they have lots of connections) and some people, who may also have valuable knowledge or new and essential insights, never are (because they’re new to the system, because they post infrequently, because they are not as extensively networked). A system is strengthened when it has a dynamic flow of new information, but it becomes difficult to maintain the flow when trust isn’t being built or new ideas aren’t being communicated across communities.
The Augmented Social Network proposes to tackle some of these issues by developing a system where affinities can be discovered and trust established across communities and among strangers. Trust, we believe, is currently in decline in our society. This is likely due to many factors, among them increased stress, rapid change, broader networks, businesses and government institutions who do not honor agreements as they have been made. And yet, trust is essential for people of good will to engage in productive civic development and policy discussions. So, how can trust be established on the Internet in ways that recognize everyone’s potential participation and promotes community and progress?
The ASN proposal includes four main elements:
Persistent Identity
Interoperability between online communities
Brokered relationships
Public interest matching technologies
As discussed in this paper, persistent identity in this context must be something controlled by the users themselves. They must be free to decide not only what information is stored about them, but how it is revealed. For example, mandatory persistent identity that reaches across work, play, and civic environments would be a sure-fire way to guarantee that many people would either not participate, or would only participate in ‘safe’ ways. If someone has to choose between civic participation and their job, then they are not free. We can argue that it’s a ‘choice,’ participation or job, but if we truly want to live in a democracy then it is not an appropriate choice. We must have both employed workers and full participants in society--not an increasingly small group who can afford it or who have nothing to lose. Civic participation cannot belong only to the wealthy.
The other three elements are primarily concerned with finding and making contacts with like-minded others or with people who can contribute knowledge to a project. Ways to reach across communities, brokering relationships to introduce one ‘stranger’ to another in the system while still respecting everyone’s privacy, and developing systems to match public interests across the web are all critical to civic participation and productive progress.
Among the many issues here, (especially in judging affinities and capabilities and in matching public interests is one that plagues the Internet and its need, as a technological system, to have all things defined) and that is the essential nature of serendipity in any task of this nature. We don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t always know our own capabilities or how they apply. We find it particularly difficult, for instance, to locate people whose expertise isn’t credentialed in some identifiable, categorizable way. When you’re looking to solve an environmental problem you want people with expert knowledge, with local knowledge, and with policy knowledge and you want simple ways to bring them together. You want ways to identify people, to invite their participation, to build trust and to move ahead without too much ‘noise’ in the system.
There are a number of things going on currently on the web that would help build the system outlined in this paper--XML, RDF, Topic Maps, reputation systems on Amazon.com and eBay.
The paper ends with the following recommendations for proceeding:
Principles of implementation are:
The ASN could be implemented piece by piece and community by community. The system could be emergent and respond to growth and new unexpected uses that people will find to apply to the system once it’s in place.
So, what does all this mean for Extension and, in broader terms, for the Land Grant System? ISU Extension’s mission is as follows: ISU Extension builds partnerships and provides research-based learning opportunities to improve quality of life in Iowa.
Other extension service mission statements:
Providing quality, relevant outreach and continuing education programs and services to the people of Texas.--Texas Cooperative Extension
The Cornell Cooperative Extension educational system enables people to improve their lives and communities through partnerships that put experience and research knowledge to work.--Cornell Cooperative Extension
University of Illinois Extension provides practical, research-based information and programs to help individuals, families, farms, businesses and communities in Illinois. Its mission in short, is to help you put knowledge to work.--University of Illinois Extension.
Extension is about reaching out to people all across the state, about helping people use the information that university research produces, about taking data and information and helping people turn it into resident knowledge. Extension runs on networks. Clients, field and regional specialists, county office staff and campus specialists all work primarily through a web of loosely connected networks. For example, county office assistants communicate with their county directors, other county office assistants in the region, clients of extension, field specialists, campus specialists, local institutions and others. They provide information, seek support, offer expertise, and coordinate data, information and knowledge.
So where could the features of ASN--persistent identity, interoperability between online communities, brokered relationships, public interest matching technologies--fit into Extension’s mission and organization? I think there are probably a number of applications that will become possible that are not possible now and that many of these applications will be invented by people pushing current boundaries as well as just trying to get their jobs done. Applications of this sort are generally disruptive and spontaneous and difficult to predict. What we can do is be prepared for disruption and encourage positive change when it happens. In addition, ASN could provide more people with the opportunity to interact with Extension experts through brokered introductions and public interest matching technologies. It could expand the Extension staff interaction on the Internet in ways that add value both for citizen participants (thanks to the information and knowledge they glean from Extension personnel) and for Extension (in enriching and deepening Extension staff’s knowledge and understanding of current developments).
Discussion of the Augmented Social Network and its potential applications is ongoing now. And while the final application may mutate it’s very likely that some form of building identity and trust will be implemented as the Internet continues to develop. It makes sense for Extension and other public service institutions to be aware of these discussions and prepared to participate in ways that enhance the public interest and the services we provide.