Nicole Simon is over in London, visiting PodcastConUK. A little difficulty with a lost purse lead to her needing a small loan, so after she’d dried out from walking through the wonderful wet London autumnal weather we got together for a meal and a chat. Thinking about the situation in my half-asleep haze this morning, I reflected on the establishment of trust in a virtual world. Trust is usually established through a series of personal interactions; in this case I’d only met Nicole once before. But the online interactions, through Blog and emails facilitates the development of trust; as important is the ability to observe other people’s interactions with her, online and through the podcasts, as reputation is established and maintained.

So nothing new in that observation, but it is my brain getting working earlier tthan usual!