A project on Internet trust and credibility

Aligning with this week’s discussion of the credibility of information on wikipedia and other online sources, I ran across this project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, on credibility and trust in Internet settings, called the “Credibility Commons“.

Interestingly enough, this research project is “open effort”, and uses collaborative tools and values. Here is their statement:

The Commons is envisioned as an open effort task. In “open effort” not only are tools and products made widely available through Creative Commons licensing, but the very process of idea generation is open and transparent as well. The process shall be supported by community contributions of time, money and other in-kind efforts. The boundaries of the organization must become porous with team members coming from multiple agencies, and means of support. The point of this approach is to maximize reputation and impact over short-term market advantage that can create the impression of bias, and proprietary competition. Software, findings and other means of intellectual property while retained by the Commons, are made freely available to causes directly in-line with the mission of the Commons, and used to support the greater activities through monetary license to commercial entities.

For those of you interested in issues of open content, credibility, and trust, I encourage you to see this site.