Group started at Stanford August 2001. The focus is Trust in and among organizations.

What? This group (meaning 1 of TrustNet) is about promoting thoughtful dialog to enable research.

How? A weekly forum hosted at Stanford KNEXUS center. Plus, this online forum with a slightly broader participation.

When? The weekly meeting is every Friday at 4pm. Send email to the founders for location information (it varies).

Why? The pace of business is hectic, increasingly so, abetted by connectivity technologies (phone, voicemail, email, mobile access, Internet commerce, web services). A growing organization in such an environment finds itself devoting less time to developing social capital and trust. Increasing use of virtual teams and strictly task-centered dialog appears to be evidence. Erosion of trust is a symptom. Making mistakes and failing to learn from them is the malaise. What we are seeking is deeper understanding of the issues to suggest the remedies.

Objectives: Deepen our awareness and understanding of trust-centered issues.

Personal objectives (Sri's)
1. Develop a corporate workshop to assess trust and assist in improving it.
2. Form a collaborative consortium (meaning 2 of TrustNet) with the aim of developing a trusted internet. Emphasis is on understanding what trust is, its dynamics on the Internet, possible ideas for trusted communities based on insights drawn from the social sciences, psychology, management science and general plain old commonsense.
Hopefully this will result in designing, constructing and experimenting with a trusted internet(meaning 3 of TrustNet) that supports commerce and information sharing.

* Critical problems, issues and research questions pertaining to trust faced in organizations and on Internet

* A vision of what the TrustNet might offer

* Ideas for making a TrustNet effective

* Possible kinds of research projects