Trust_online

The following are some thoughts about the impact of trust in online social networks. This is just me (Sylvie) rambling on about these issues before I go off for surgery.

Research in online trust issues has studied potential antecedents to trust that can be grouped into five different categories: 1. The company and its product Examples of studied antecedents in this category include:
 * Merchant's ability to deliver the product/service as promised
 * Quality of the product/service
 * Belief in the merchant's willingness to rectify the situation if not satisfactory
 * Belief in the merchant's integrity
 * Perceived reputation of the store or the brand
 * Familiarity with the vendor
 * Management of the relationship
 * Perceived store size

2. The website Examples include:
 * Presence of a privacy policy or statement
 * Third party certification presence
 * Perceived privacy
 * How personal data is handled
 * Navigation
 * Presentation
 * Perceived usefulness of the website (e.g., presence tools to help with information management)
 * Perceived ease of use
 * Company's social presence on the website (e.g., live chat)
 * Satisfaction with past internet transactions in general

3. The underlying technology Examples include:
 * Trust that the system is working as predicted (reliability, competence, effectiveness)
 * Trust in the various system components: data exchange services; customer's desktop; retailer's servers; bank's servers; electronic marketplace operators
 * Understanding of the medium by the consumer

4. The user/consumer Examples include:
 * General propensity to trust
 * Existing offline trust towards company
 * Perceived risk of transaction

5. The social network There is only one example here:
 * Word-of-mouth referral

For the Ravelry project, I think the aspect I want to look at is the impact of the social network. There must be other social variables that have an impact on how people develop trust beyond simple word-of-mouth. For example, why are so many people enamored of Wollmeise in spite of its high price and the extreme difficulty that surrounds purchasing it? For those who aren't familiar, Wollmeise is a brand of German yarn that is popular among Ravelry users but that is only available once a week (?) online – when it does become available, everyone logs on at the same time to purchase it which results in a hit-and-miss situation where you may or may not end up getting the item you covet into your cart. A usability nightmare, and yet people are still willing to put up with these issues to purchase it. Is Wollmeise so popular because everyone keeps raving about it? Is it groupthink? Is it really made of angel farts and unicorn tears?

At the moment I'm thinking of two different aspects to the issues of trust and Ravelry: 1. How do you develop trust towards salespeople who advertise on Ravelry? 2. How do you develop trust towards other Ravelry members who you have never met in real life?

Situation 1. Crafters are constantly buying fibers, yarn, designs, or other tools for their projects. How do they proceed? Do they buy offline or online? If online, are they going through Ravelry? If through Ravelry, why? Do they feel more trust towards someone who is advertising through Ravelry than someone who is not?

Other questions that are probably pertinent to Linda's interest in micro-transactions: What limits – if any – do crafters select when they decide to buy online? Price? Weight limit (anything above 10 pounds will be too expensive to ship, for example)? Distance? Shipping and handling expenses? Who are crafters buying from? Are they repeat buyers? Why? Why not?

Situation 2. Trust can develop between Ravelry members who interact together online. This can be exemplified by the choice to turn first to a Ravelry forum to ask a question: has anyone done this design and did you find an error in it; given the following parameters, does anyone know of an appropriate project; given the following parameters, does anyone know of an appropriate yarn; I am knitting a shawl and I dropped a stitch, what can I do; and so on. This can extend to turning to Ravelry for personal problems (e.g., health, social, work, school).

How do people develop trust towards others in an online situation? What impact does Ravelry's forum set-up have on this trust? For example, what is the impact of the "disagree" button? How much of a bond do you feel towards other Ravelry members? How much of a bond do you feel towards other crafters (knitters, crocheters, yarnies) in real life?

I am sure people must have done studies on trust in online social networks before (forums, boards), I just need to track them down when I get back from sick leave.