Trust , Social Capital, and Activity in Community Building.
Marc's Voice ¨ Pierre's Web
Pierre writes:
I've been very interested in how trust works and evolves between people. It's an integral part of what makes eBay work, obviously. And it's critical for effective communities.
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Networks usually evolve around a particular purpose. They don't arise just because they're a good idea. Over the years, I've been particularly fond of pointing out that every town seems to have a Community Center, but people rarely seem to actually go there. The existence of a Community Center doesn't mean that the community is effective, or even what we would consider a "true" community.
Trust is a good idea. Social capital is a good idea. Social capital must exist for a network, or a community, to be effective. But trust doesn't evolve just because everyone agrees it's a necessary part of their lives. Trust has to be established within the context of a relationship or an interaction. It doesn't exist in a vacuum.
and Marc responds:
Pierre is talking about EXACTLY what I don't like about Ryze, Intro, Friendster - even Fotolog. They spend all this time introducing everyone to each other and then what? Private email? Message boards?
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It's all about activities - what people DO TOGETHER. Pierre puts in reference to trust, but we see it as activities. Creating a context for how people interact, collaborate, entertain, flirt, mate, help, build, produce, mentor, learn and grow is what we're focusing on. As Director was to multimedia - so will the Community Commons be to on-line communities.
[Micah's Weblog]
Couldn't agree more. Is not trust "granted". You win it be doing things that show that you can be trusted. PayPal sets up a set of ever larger transactions. The more you "do' which is Ok, the larger the limit. The same with eBay. You don't start by selling a car but with a small item and then graduate up. The same with life? Bank credit scoring works this way. It looks for patterns of meeting obligations. The credit score "knows" that if you consistently pay late that this is a bad sign that you cannot be trusted. Don Fullerton, a previous chairman of CIBC, told me as a young wiz kid that the issue of lending was less whether the borrower could pay us back but whether he had the will to pay to us back.
Experience based on action seems at the core of trust. There is a scene in Band of Brothers where there is a sniper. One of the guys runs into the open in the trust, based on his experience, that his own sharp shooter will get the sniper before the sniper gets him. I think that you are a fool to grant too much trust before it is earned. He exposes himself because he has every right to expect that he will be taken care of - based on experience.
Trust is the accelerator. With trust, you can act without having to establish logically the reason for acting. The soldier who exposed himself could act with out thinking because the trust had been established. This then increases the tempo of group action, Units that have high trust - look at the US forces in Iraq - can work at a tempo that in itself destabilizes the opponent.
So for me, organizations that work on creating trust will out perform those that only try to be efficient - which tends to reduce trust
For me - trust is about meeting stated commitments. Commitments are based on being human and real. We see this rarely in corporate life. So being real and taking action is at the heart of trust. If commitments are further embedded in a shared set of values the trust based on action is enhanced. This is the essence of the trust that can be built in a real sports team, an elite military unit etc.
Putnam looks for horizontal groups in society that have a shared purpose and that do things with each other as the measure of social capital. Calling a centre a community centre does not make it so. Nor does calling a group a team.
9:35:44 PM 
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