Your online reputation precedes you

Last spring we were talking about reputation as a component of identity (see “Reputation as the new currency of identity” and “Why reputation works as an identity management element”). Specifically, we discussed about how reputation can be used as a factor to determine the amount of reliance you place on claims made by, or on behalf of, an entity wishing to be authenticated or authorized. What we’re talking about is a reputation for trustworthiness or reliability.

You really do have to be aware of and protect against “transference” of reputation. I may, for example, be known as an excellent dinner table companion because of my extensive knowledge of wine and my ability as a raconteur to keep you entertained with interesting stories (there’s also my humility!). But that reputation doesn’t mean you should rely on my statements of directions for navigating the back roads of Manitoba (where I’ve never been). Reputation must be fixed to a fairly well defined and fine-grained area.

I’m bringing this up because HP’s Wook Lee (see “HP’s directory diet guru speaks”) just dropped me a note pointing out that Microsoft’s “Freelancer” game is, in part, reputation based. As Lee described it to me:

“I’m playing a Microsoft space game called Freelancer where your reputation with various groups affects where you can dock your ship, who shoots at you along the way and what jobs you can sign up for. The results of those jobs also affect who is happy with you and [who isn’t -] usually the guys you’re pounding into space dust. You can bribe folks to hack your record to make you look good to a particular group though it causes other groups to start thinking worse of you.”

Lee wanted to point out that last part, specifically – the ability to attempt to “game” the system to improve your own reputation or reduce someone else’s. He went on to say that it “…reminds me of the news bites referring to the ‘reputed mob boss’ and ‘reputed international terrorist’ and I can’t help projecting that into the online arena. We can get pretty convoluted when we start talking about a person’s reputation as a source of reputation data. Who do you trust? ‘The most trusted name in online e-references’ even if they say so themselves? Online character assassination may become a cottage industry along with reputation doctors (or e-agents in the professional sports or actor sense).”

Those are very valid points that need to be kept in consideration as we tentatively move forward to attempt to implement some sort of universal reputation system. Still, we do need to move forward to replace the convoluted, inefficient, user-unfriendly PKI systems that are currently the be-all and end-all for securing trust and reliability in identity transactions. Reputation seems to offer a better path to follow. But, as always, your thoughts are welcome. Oh, and try the trial version of Freelancer while you’re at it.