Social Protocols

From Joseph M. Riegle, Jr. at http://www.w3.org/Talks/980922-MIT6805/SocialProtocols.html

"Social protocol" is a term I use to discuss protocols (or their applications) that enable individuals and communities to express social capabilities. This would include tools necessary for creating rich content, managing trust relationships, making verifiable assertions or recommendations, and enabling agent assisted (or automatic) decision making. The ability to make verifiable assertions, to build reputation, to solicit advice, and defer to a trusted source are all real world capabilities. This is what meat space relationships are built upon. If we want sophisticated cyberspace relationships, we will need similar mechanisms.

Social protocols have substantive policy issues related to their development -- as do many other protocols, such as DNS. However, the key difference between a social protocol and something like DNS is that little social behavior, cues, or relationships are carried through DNS. The key function of social protocols is to express and operate upon such information for users and their computer agents." (http://www.w3.org/Talks/980922-MIT6805/SocialProtocols.html)