Gartner analysts are calling the formation of the OASIS Open Reputation Management Systems Technical Committee an important effort in a difficult area of interoperability. "Online reputation scores are a relatively recent innovation. Numeric ratings are vulnerable to manipulation and are not suitable for every situation in which previously unfamiliar entities need to make a trust evaluation. Nevertheless, despite these limitations, such ratings are increasing and many of them will likely prove useful. Groups like the ORMS committee that plan to develop standards for reputational representation could be highly beneficial, as would be any effort at sharing, comparing and verifying such information. These groups should avoid attempting to impose a simplified standard scoring approach or method of auditing the results.
The ORMS committee's statement that it does not intend to address the core issue of defining reputational assessment algorithms signals that the scope of its effort will be appropriately limited. The committee will focus on trying to define potential portability of the building blocks of reputation scoring from Web site to Web site.
This is a significant first step in an extremely difficult area of interoperability. Given the social, technical and political complications, Gartner does not expect the ORMS committee to be completely successful; however, even if it meets with limited success, it will likely offer many useful lessons learned.
Read the complete report by Jay Heiser, Toby Bell, and Ray Wagner at Gartner.