“Trust becomes more difficult to build in digital space when participants are unknown to each other and crowdsourced contributions…”
The issue of trust was one of the issues raised by the author that I found most interesting in this weeks article. Trust is an essential element in any relationship and the author raises a good point about how trust is harder to build in virtual spaces. The lack of face-to-face connections is surely one of the most significant reasons for this but I also think that people are wary of anything online. I think this is especially true for older internet users.
To build trust in virtual space is something I imagine to be extremely difficult. I would be interested in seeing how various institutions have approached the idea of trust in virtual space. The issue is further complicated because not only must participants trust the institution they are communicating with but they must also trust other participants. Inter-participant trust is crucial because without it the information being shared will be seen to be illegitimate. For this reason I think the author is correct in their conclusion that “Geoweb-enabled participation can be the starting point but participation can be made more effective with both [traditional participation]”
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