The importance of confidence & trust in complex collaborative systems

The security and protection of intellectual property and highly valuable data/information/knowledge is a primary concern for companies, organizations and individuals as we all do business in today´s virtual, global economy. From information vital to our nation´s security to industry trade secrets to protecting one´s privacy and identification, keeping important information out of the hands of the “bad guys” is a top priority. However, over the past couple of years considerable emphasis has started to be placed on going beyond securing and protecting our information (and associated collection, dissemination and generation resources) to trying to identify the trustworthiness of the information or confidence one can place in the information. Information can be secure and protected and still be inaccurate, not relevant, totally wrong, etc.