On 3/11/07, Slim Virgin slimvirgin@gmail.com wrote:
I worry that the formal verification thing will take us down the Citizendium road.
Let's think about expressing trust in different ways, of which recognizing a person's credentials is just one. We could build a voluntary "web of trust" where editors recognize others as: - being the person they claim to be, including but not limited to claims they make about themselves, such as credentials (identity) - being knowledgeable in a particular subject area or possessing a particular skill (ability) - acting in good faith, in recognition of their limitations, and in awareness of Wikipedia's policies and practices (reliability)
The first dimension matters to _processes of representation_: positions of high level trust (stewardship, Wikimedia committees, possibly ArbCom).
The second dimension matters to _processes of collaboration_: identifying people to work with.
The third dimension matters to _parameters of participation_: setting the limits of a contributor's right to action within the community.
Such a web of trust model does not require technical changes. It could be built using user subpages, similar to the German "Vertrauensnetzwerk":
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vertrauen
A somewhat similar effort was made in the English Wikipedia a while ago, but never received traction. The German network, on the other hand, remains active and proves the basic viability; the model could be extended to cover the above three dimensions. This _might_ involve some use of external software such as OTRS for verification-related processes. It would be completely voluntary and not involve any official Foundation capacities.
I would caution against any expression of _mistrust_ in such a system, as it can destabilize a community. Instead, I would suggest that the only alternative to any expression of trust is _action_: monitoring or limiting another user's contributions. We have existing processes to do so, and to raise awareness of problem users, so I think we've got that base pretty well covered.