"In Community We Trust": Online Security Communication at eBay

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Author

Josh Boyd

Tech report number

CERIAS TR 2002-19

Entry type

article

Abstract

As e-commerce and virtual communities fundamentally change the way Americans do business and build relationships, how can people be assured of safety in unfamiliar cyberspaces? This essay focuses on online auction site eBay to understand how eBay has successfully attracted millions of users in spite of perceived risks and uncertainties. It argues that eBay is, in fact, a community (of commerce), and that the rhetorical construction of "community" on the site provides a foundation for trust between users. Based on trust theory, this essay isolates eBay's "community trust" model as consisting of seven elements that work together to give users reasons to trust and to be trustworthy. Finally, the essay examines recent changes to eBay's system, suggesting that so-called improvements for control might actually weaken the "community trust" system already in place--a warning to other sites that might imitate eBay's community approach.

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Date

2002

URL

http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol7/issue3/boyd.html

Institution

Purdue University

Journal

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

Key alpha

Boyd

Volume

Affiliation

CERIAS and Department of Communication

Publication Date

1900-01-01

Location

A hard-copy of this is in the CERIAS Library

BibTex-formatted data

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@Article{ Boyd,
	title = ""In Community We Trust":  Online Security Communication at eBay",
	author = "Josh Boyd",
	year = "2002",
	institution = "Purdue University",
	journal = "Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication",
	volume = "7",
	abstract = "As e-commerce and virtual communities fundamentally change the way Americans do business and build relationships, how can people be assured of safety in unfamiliar cyberspaces? This essay focuses on online auction site eBay to understand how eBay has successfully attracted millions of users in spite of perceived risks and uncertainties. It argues that eBay is, in fact, a community (of commerce), and that the rhetorical construction of "community" on the site provides a foundation for trust between users. Based on trust theory, this essay isolates eBay's "community trust" model as consisting of seven elements that work together to give users reasons to trust and to be trustworthy. Finally, the essay examines recent changes to eBay's system, suggesting that so-called improvements for control might actually weaken the "community trust" system already in place--a warning to other sites that might imitate eBay's community approach.

",
	affiliation = "CERIAS and Department of Communication",
	url = "http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol7/issue3/boyd.html",
}