The New Connect.Me Launch
After months of intense coding, late nights, and caffeine binges, we are about to release the next version of Connect.Me. We’ve been operating a bit in stealth mode but will soon be able to share some of the exciting business deals and technical achievements going on behind the scenes.
Current private beta users will get the first preview of the new site. Stay tuned on Twitter and email. After the preview, we will be launching our official public beta.
Note that as we transition to the new version, login and sign up to the private beta are temporarily unavailable. Rest assured that all your user data and vouches will be available again as soon as the new version goes live.
What’s new for Connect.Me
- Rebuilt from the ground up with a crazy powerful and scalable API
- New design, making it easier for you to use and faster for us to introduce some really cool features on the roadmap
- Reputation cards now include public shares – starting first with Tweets
- Personalization by default – wherever you look, you see what people you trust have recommended
- Public directory where you can discover other interesting people
- Powerful new search with support for international names and tags
Peer reputation is a big challenge that will play an increasingly important role in the future of the social web and digital economies.
Fast Company really summed it up nicely in their new July/August edition:
Startups such as Connect.me, Legit, and Peertrust are trying to aggregate reputation data across marketplaces. Reputation is going to become a currency more powerful than credit history.
We couldn’t agree more.
Mar 1, 2012
Ten for Trust: Trust Anchor Vouching In Your Own Words
After a six week bootstrap period, today marks the full start of Trust Anchor vouching on the Connect.Me private beta. Trust Anchors are the highest of the four trust levels in the Respect Trust Framework. Only Trust Anchors can give a Trust Anchor vouch. This blog post explains all about the special role of Trust Anchors, and this one explains the special value of a Trust Anchor vouch.To mark this milestone, we are inviting any of first 676 Trust Anchors (or anyone who aspires to be one) to join us in doing a Ten for Trust blog post. The purpose is to put in your own words what a Trust Anchor vouch really means by listing ten people that you have or plan to give a Trust Anchor vouch to.
It’s a simple, public way to acknowledge the people who have earned special trust in your life.
A few suggestions:
- Put Ten for Trust in the title of the post to make it easier to find.
- Don’t feel you have to list exactly ten – list as many or as few people as you like.
- If the person you are listing is on Connect.Me, include a link to their page.
- Tweet a link to your post to us at @respectconnect using the hashtag #ten4trust and we’ll retweet it.
Here’s a list of Ten for Trust posts:
- Drummond Reed – Drummond’s Ten for Trust – Round One
- Marc Coluccio – Ten for Trust – Well let’s start with 6
- Georgina Lester – Meeting People Online – Who Do You Trust
- Stan Smith – Ten for Trust
- Stephen Ogden – Ten for Trust
- Nance Larson – What Trust Means to Me
- Michael Q. Todd – Ten for Trust on #connectme
Note: from now until the European Identity Conference (April 17-20 in Munich), we’ll update this list with links to new Ten for Trust posts.
Feb 13, 2012
The Value of a Trust Anchor Vouch
Just under a month ago, the Connect.Me private beta introduced the highest of the four trust levels defined by the Respect Trust Framework: Trust Anchor. The special role of a Trust Anchor in building a socially-curated reputation network is explained here on the Connect.Me site, here on the Connect.Me blog, andhere in a guest blog post last December. In a nutshell:
- Trust Anchor status is the highest level of social verification of your identity.
- Trust Anchor status is the most social proof that you are vouching honestly.
- As a Trust Anchor you agree to accept the highest level of responsibility for protecting the integrity of the trust network.
The value of this level of proof of your identity and reputation explains why Connect.Me users have been eager to achieve the Trust Anchor ribbon on their Connect.Me card:
So it should come as no surprise that there have already been gaming attempts to “trade” for Trust Anchor vouches. Founding Trust Anchor Amanda Fox wrote a blog post about it yesterday called What is a Trust Anchor Vouch Really Worth. She gave these very concrete — if anonymous — examples:
- Gentleman A, offered to max me out at 600 shares on EAv in exchange for me giving him a trust anchor vouch. This was a person I never met before – had to go look at his profile to see who it was. It was, and still is, the only interaction we have ever had.
- Gentleman B, offered to run missions directing people to buy shares in me or whatever I wanted in exchange for my Trust Anchor vouch.
- Lady A used her trust anchor vouch, more than once, in exchange for people doing promotional favors for her at her site – and I know she did not know who these people were because she bragged to me how she got these desperate noobs to jump through hoops for her to get that vouch.
- Gentleman C, whom I gave a regular vouch for Twitter, came back requesting I provide a Trust Anchor vouch for him as an expert in ____. Not only was it not evident to me anywhere that he was an expert in what he requested, I couldn’t even Google any connection to the field or see it on his Facebook – because we were not FB friends.
This set off a small firestorm of discussion both on Amanda’s blog and on a private Facebook group (self-organized by Trust Anchors several weeks ago) about what was and was not appropriate when giving a Trust Anchor vouch, particularly during this initial period in which each Trust Anchor has a special one-time allotment of 50 Trust Anchor vouches to help seed the Trust Anchor network. Founding Trust Anchor Adam Justice summarized his chief concern this way:
It’s not just about gaming, it’s about integrity, and I don’t think there is any way for Connect.me to get it back. There are just too many TA vouches available now.
We responded by explaining that:
- It’s early, and the first crop of Trust Anchors are still learning about what it means to be a Trust Anchor and the value of a Trust Anchor vouch.
- The Respect Trust Framework is based on the same self-healing and self-reinforcing trust model as Wikipedia, so Trust Anchors will constantly be defending and improving the quality of the Trust Anchor network.
These points are so important that what follows is a mini-FAQ about Trust Anchor vouching and how Connect.Me will proceed with the Trust Anchor program.
Why did you provide 50 special Trust Anchor vouches to the first round of Trust Anchors? Isn’t that a large number to start with?
In this first round of Trust Anchor vouching, we wanted to provide enough TA vouches so the Founding Trust Anchors (the seed group for all Trust Anchors) would feel comfortable vouching for as many other individuals as they felt deserved to be Trust Anchors. The goal was to grow a larger pool of Trust Anchors before regular trust anchor vouching begins.
Why will Trust Anchors have a lifetime limit of 150 Trust Anchor vouches?
As stated in the Respect Trust Framework, a Trust Anchor vouch means:
- You know the person you are vouching for well, either personally on through longtime familiarity with their public body of work.
- You personally believe that he/she will uphold the principles and rules of the Respect Trust Framework by vouching honestly and protecting the integrity of the trust network.
In a 1992 study, anthropolist Robin Dunbar showed that 150 was simply “the number of individuals with whom a stable inter-personal relationship can be maintained”, i.e., that’s the number of people it is reasonable for you to know well enough to make the judgement above.
So what is the real value of a Trust Anchor vouch?
When you give someone a Trust Anchor vouch, it means you believe in his/her integrity enough to be willing to stand behind him/her with your own reputation. If you cannot say that about a person, please do not give them a Trust Anchor vouch.
A Trust Anchor vouch is the strongest positive social signal you can send – stronger than a “friend”, “connect”, “follow” and even a tag “vouch”. For this reason, a Trust Anchor vouch will carry extra weight in the Connect.Me reputation graph, including giving extra weight to the tag vouches you give to that person.
What are you doing now to explain this to current Trust Anchors?
First, we are extending the first round of Trust Anchor vouching — the period until regular Trust Anchor vouch begins — until March 1.
Second, in addition to this blog post, we are sending an email to all current and pending Trust Anchors explaining these guidelines.
Third we are asking them to review the Trust Anchor vouches they have given to make sure they fit within these guidelines and remove any that do not.
Lastly, we are suggesting they should consider the people they have the strongest trust relationships with — not just online, but also offline — and give them Trust Anchor vouches.
What should a Trust Anchor do if they believe another Trust Anchor is “trading vouches” or otherwise not vouching honestly?
They should send an email to complaints@connect.me with a short description of the problem. Per the rules of the Respect Trust Framework, Connect.Me will investigate as quickly as possible. If it is clear the Respect Trust Framework is not being upheld, Trust Anchor status will be revoked for an appropriate period of time.
What will happen on March 1?
We will switch to standard Trust Anchor vouching. This means:
- Any of the initial 50 special Trust Anchor vouches that have not been given during this special period will expire.
- Every Trust Anchor will receive their lifetime allotment of 150 Trust Anchor vouches. Note that a Trust Anchor vouch, like a tag vouch, may be deleted at any time if you not longer feel the recipient deserves it. Once deleted, will be credited back to your limit of 150 Trust Anchor vouches so it may be given to someone else.
Founding Trust Anchor Georgina Lester, who has done her own blog post on the subject, summed up the goal of the Trust Anchor program beautifully: “Authenticity always shines through”. Together let’s make it so.
Jan 25, 2012
The Case for Better Online Reputation – Part 1
Why is it so $#@&%’ing hard to send money around the globe?
In the age of Paypal, Elance, and dozens of online payment systems, it’s still a royal pain to send money to people who live in Eastern Europe, Africa, and about 1/2 of the world. Sure, many of the payment systems say they support a lot of countries, but good luck trying to get your payment to go through.
The problem is fundamentally one of trust.
If the IMF doesn’t trust your government, then the banks don’t trust you. In reputation network speak, it’s a faulty trust anchor dilemma. You’re anchored to an entity that people don’t trust, and there’s just nothing you can do about it … at least for the moment.
With well over 1B people on the web, knowing who you can trust and being able to prove that you’re trusted can radically change your life.
Let’s say you’re a talented software engineer in the Ukraine (quick shout-out to Andrey, Yaroslav, Alex, and some of the guys I’ve worked with over the years). If you want to make a good wage, your best bet is to get on Elance or Odesk and start building your reputation. With the right skills, networking, and hard work, you can earn double or triple what the average programmer makes in your home country. A huge win for a globally connected society.
The problem is not just limited to developing countries. With more and more people joining the telecommuting and freelance workforces, who you know and who trusts you is becoming increasingly important.
It’s pretty obvious how online reputation makes a big impact on a freelancer’s ability to earn a living, but that’s just the tip of the reputation iceberg. What lies under the surface is the very social fabric of the Internet and the credibility of the most important information system ever invented.
Let’s face it, we’ve got a lot of challenges to overcome as a global community. We need to leverage the heck out of the Internet to get things done. But one of the big hurdles is the trustworthiness of the people on the web.
So how do we fix the online reputation problem? It’s a huge issue that won’t be solved overnight.
To start, we need new technologies and services that make it easier to capture reputation data and use it to solve real user problems. We also need to push past ranking influencers and focus on the long tail.
Most of the existing reputation systems shine the light on influencers or the top 10% of online content generators. While this is great for many use cases, it leaves the other 90% of social web users in the dark. Focusing reputation on content creation rather than people has the side effect of encouraging faster content production rather than more accurate or valuable content.
We also need to put in place reasonable measures to prevent gaming of reputation systems. After all, if you can’t trust the system, you can’t trust the people.
Connect.Me‘s approach to solving reputation is a mix of curation and contextualization. For the contextualization, we make it easy for people to indicate how they trust each other via tags. Behind the scenes, we’re linking the tags together into a powerful ontology that will be the brains of our public release version of Connect.Me.
For curation and anti-gaming protection, we’ve been selectively growing out our group of Wikipedia-like admins of reputation: Trust Anchors. This is our core community of superusers from all sorts of backgrounds who are helping identify some of the most interesting and reputable – not just the most influential – people online.
If you’d like to join the community and participate in the private beta, signup for Connect.Me and apply to become a Trust Anchor.
And last but not least, a big THANK YOU to all the people who have signed up for our private beta. The invite waiting list is currently over 60k and growing. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll increase our rate of invites to catch up a bit.
Stay tuned for part 2 where we’ll give a sneak peak of what’s coming next for Connect.Me and the public beta launch.
Also check out Chris Dixon’s posts on An Internet of People and Trusting Platforms.
Dec 21, 2011
Why Does Connect.Me Need Trust Anchors?
After Saul Fleischman wrote a very kind blog post last month, Humanizing Online Reputation: Connect.Me, he asked if I would write a guest post explaining more about the special role of trust anchors(individuals at the highest of the four trust levels).
I said I’d be more than happy to — it is a subject I’m passionate about, since I strongly believe that trust is ultimately rooted in people and only they (and not machines) can verify and maintain it. So please do read/comment on the post, titled Why Does Connect.Me Need Trust Anchors?
And if you are interested in becoming a Founding Trust Anchor, please read more about it and apply here.
Nov 16, 2011
User Control and Trust on Connect.Me
Some people have asked us: “Why does Connect.Me use social logins, and does Connect.Me automatically notify the people I vouch for?”
First, the reason Connect.Me uses social logins such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter is so we can:
- Import your connections on that network to make it easy to vouch for them.
- Give you the option to easily notify someone when you vouch for them.
Second, Connect.Me only notifies people if you click “Notify” at the bottom of the vouchbox. If you don’t want any notification to be sent, just click “Close” at the bottom of the vouchbox. (In fact, if the person you are vouching for is already a member of Connect.Me and has turned off notifications on their Connect.Me Settings page, they will not be notified even if you do send them a notification. They’ll just see the vouch the next time they log in.)
Important: even if you choose not to notify a friend about a vouch, that friend can still use your vouch to join the Connect.Me private beta. All your friend needs to do is login to Connect.Me with the social network account on which gave the vouch, e.g., if you vouched for a Twitter friend, that friend must login with that Twitter account to enter the Connect.Me private beta. Once your friend joins, they can then choose to claim all vouches they have received on all the social network accounts they have by connecting those social networks.
The reason that we are so diligent about this is because Connect.Me is based on full user control, as detailed in the Respect Trust Framework — this is the reason Connect.Me received the Privacy Award at the European Identity Conference in May 2011.
If you are passionate about user control and trust online, please consider joining our trust anchor program — details are in this blog post.
Nov 15, 2011
What’s Coming Next in the Connect.Me Private Beta
Many thank you’s are in order to all the early Connect.Me private beta users. The response has been overwhelmingly positive to the idea and need for a peer-to-peer reputation system on the social web.
I’d like to take a few minutes to pop out of the product development cave, introduce myself, and quickly answer a some of the common questions.
My name is Joe Johnston. I’m the CEO, product guy, and co-founder of Connect.Me.
Q: What’s next for the Connect.Me beta?
A: If you’ve tried out our private beta, you’ve probably vouched for a bunch of people, earned some badges, and are now wondering what you can do with your Connect.Me card. Fear not, new features are launching soon. We wanted to keep the private beta simple to help people find and vouch for each other.
Here are just a few of the upcoming features:
- Embeddable Cards & Widgets – embed in your blog to help people promote & discover you
- Public Directory – find interesting and respected people on the social web based on peer reputation instead of reach or influence
- Find People in Your Extended Network - browse your network and extended network by tags
Q: I already preregistered for Connect.Me, when will I be let into the private beta?
A: We are letting in new people everyday, but our backlog of users is over 50k and growing. It pains me as an entrepreneur and developer to not let everyone in at once, but right now, we’re focusing heavily on the getting the full product built while improving scalability.
Q: Will I be able to rename tags on my card?
A: Yes. Part of the secret sauce of Connect.Me is our taxonomy being built-out behind the scenes. When we launch the public beta (we’re currently in private beta), you will be able to transfer vouches between synonymous tags.
Q: Can I remove vouches?
A: Yes. You can both remove vouches you’ve given as well as vouches you’ve received.
Q: What is Connect.Me’s business model?
A: The future of the social web depends heavily on solving issues of trust and reputation. Whether it’s answering the question of “Can I trust this seller or buyer?“, or “Who are the most respected bloggers?“, reputation is the next big business on the social web.
Connect.Me will make money by helping connect people to each other and reputable businesses. While we can’t publicly discuss the details of our business model just yet, we can unequivocally say that we DO NOT mine or sell user data, ever. We even won a European privacy award for our commitment to your data privacy – European laws are much stricter than in the US around privacy.
Q: Is it safe to login with my social network accounts? Can I trust Connect.Me?
A: This question is near and dear to our hearts as both citizens of the social web and as a company building on top existing social networks. The short answer yes, but you shouldn’t take my word for it.
Because we’re in private beta, we haven’t done a great job on letting people know what we’re doing with their data. But behind the scenes, people are really excited about Connect.Me in part because we’re so committed to protecting your data and privacy.
Connect.Me was awarded the prestigious 2011 European Identity Conference Privacy Award before we even launched the private beta. Our groundbreaking trust framework and privacy policies ensure your data is safe and Connect.Me is a brand you can trust. But if you’re still uneasy about logging in with your social networks, we understand and encourage you to wait until we’re out of private beta before participating.
If I can answer any other questions, please let me know by posting a comment.
And again, many thank you’s to everyone for your interest and participation in Connect.Me. We can’t wait to show you what’s coming next and fully open up the private beta!
Cheers,
Joe
Joe
Nov 14, 2011
Buzzumi Webinar on Connect.Me Tuesday Nov 15
Daniel Marovitz, CEO of buzzumi, the live video chat/webinar service, will be doing a 20 minute webinar interview of Connect.Me co-founder Drummond Reed on Tuesday, November 15 at 09:00AM Pacific Time, 17:00 UTC. Dan and Drummond will be talking about:
- The origins of Connect.Me.
- Its unique social vouching model for establishing a personal reputation network.
- The first applications for this network.
- How buzzumi and Connect.Me can be used together to power knowledge commerce.
Anyone can attend the interview using buzzumi. There is no need to register — we will tweet the buzzumi link for the webinar from both @buzzumi and @respectconnect on Tuesday morning, and also publish it as an update to this blog post.
(For another recent interview, see the podcast Adrian Ebsary did with Drummond two weeks ago during the Compass Summit.)
Nov 6, 2011
Trust Levels and Trust Anchors
As people begin using the Connect.Me beta, questions are starting to come in, “What are the different trust levels? What is a trust anchor? How can I become a trust anchor?”
The formal answers are in the Respect Trust Framework, the legal foundation upon which Connect.Me is based. It was originally announced at the European Identity Conference in May (where it won the Privacy Award). The full background is available in The Personal Network, the 22-page white paper released at the same time.
But for a much shorter set of answers, read the PDF below, called Building Lasting Trust: The Game Dynamics of the Respect Trust Framework. It’s only 8 pages, and it explains everything including how Founding Trust Anchors are appointed. (Extra credit: if you want to become a Founding Trust Anchor, instructions are at the end.)
Note: we haven’t turned on trust anchor vouching yet, so you won’t find any Trust Anchor or Founding Trust Anchor ribbons on Connect.Me cards yet. Also, mobile phone number verification to reach the Verified level isn’t enabled yet (except by doing it at Facebook and connecting your Facebook account). Stay tuned for both.
Lastly, if you are particularly interested in the subject, please join tomorrow’s Yi-Tan telecon at 16:30UTC, hosted by Jerry Michalski and Pip Coburn. The topic is Trust Networks, and specifically the role of trust anchors in Connect.Me.
Nov 5, 2011
It’s Great to be (a)Live
Although the Connect.Me beta has been in testing since August, we finally opened it up to the first batch of users from our beta invite list on Tuesday October 17th, opening day of the Internet Identity Workshop.
We are excited to see people’s first reactions. Internet entrepreneur Jeff Stollman sent us this in email:
I found vouching for others to be engaging and fun. It is a very positive experience to “flatter” people whom you admire and respect. It takes on the feeling of a game that is fun to play and has no losers.
But what we love most is to see social vouching starting to spread. This morning UC Davis microbiology professor Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics), a speaker at last week’s Compass Summit, tweeted to his 7000 followers:
Playing w/ connect.me (@respectconnect) beta – has great potential as a “reputation” social network shar.es/bDpZ8
Check out Jonathan’s Connect.Me page (http://connect.me/jonathan.eisen). We were blown away to see he’s already vouched for 48 others. (Note: you can’t see the full list unless you are logged in.)
If you’ve been reading this blog, you know how much we believe the web needs a socially-verified reputation network. It’s great to see it starting out; now let’s all make it really happen.
If you are on our beta invite list but have not received an invitation yet, hang tight, it’s coming soon — we are staging out invitations so as not to swamp the network. If you’re really impatient and just want to try it now, here’s what to do:
- Go to http://connect.me/ and register (if you haven’t already).
- Email the Connect.Me username you registered to us at requests — at — connect — dot — me.
- We’ll enter a vouch for you as an “early adopter” and notify you by reply.
- You’re off to the races.
