Carleton graduates launch new book
Carleton University is pleased to announce the launch of a new book published by MIT Press, The Reputation Society, edited by two former Carleton doctoral students, Hassan Masum and Mark Tovey. Tovey graduated in 2011 with a PhD in cognitive science and Masum graduated in 2003 with his PhD in computer science. The book considers issues raised when people seek advice online. They may draw from Amazon recommendations, eBay vendors’ histories, TripAdvisor ratings and even the voting records of our elected representatives. These online reputation systems serve as filters for information overload. The book evaluates the benefits and risks of deploying such online systems.
“Hassan Masum and I both did our doctoral work at Carleton University,” said Tovey. “The Reputation Society shows how the ability to rate and be rated can change where people live and work, who they associate with, what they read—in short, who they are—even if they’ve never clicked a like button.”
The contributors offer expert perspectives that range from philanthropy and open access to science and law, addressing reputation systems in theory and practice. Properly designed reputation systems, they argue, have the potential to create a reputation society, reshaping society for the better by promoting accountability through the mediated judgments of billions of people. Effective design can also steer systems away from the pitfalls of online opinion sharing by motivating truth-telling, protecting personal privacy, and discouraging digital vigilantism.
This is the second book edited by Tovey as a PhD student at Carleton. The first was a volume he edited on mass collaboration, called Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace (2008).
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About Carleton University
Located in the nation’s capital, Carleton University is a dynamic research and teaching institution with a tradition of leading change. Its internationally recognized faculty, staff and researchers provide more than 25,000 full- and part-time students from every province and more than 100 countries around the world with academic opportunities in more than 65 programs of study, including public affairs, journalism, film studies, engineering, high technology, and international studies. Carleton’s creative, interdisciplinary and international approach to research has led to many significant discoveries and creative works in science and technology, business, governance, public policy and the arts. As an innovative institution Carleton is uniquely committed to developing solutions to real-world problems by pushing the boundaries of knowledge and understanding daily.
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