Trust and Non-Trust in Law, Business, and Behavioral Science -- Welcome

Introduction

Introduction

Calendar

Thank you participants for a great six weeks!
As we head into this last week of the Series, we wrap up with a unit on methods of creating trust.
It brings together the theories we have examined into some concrete steps that you can take to establish - or destroy - trust, particularly in an e-commerce context.

If would like to write a paper on the topic, which we can assist you in publishing either online or on dead trees, please contact your Teaching Fellow.

Click on "Current Topic" to access the readings. See "Instructions" below for more details, or the Frequently Asked Questions page if you are having problems.

Why are we here?
Berkman Faculty Fellow Tamar Frankel is leading this new Berkman series, "Trust and Non-Trust in Law, Business, and Behavioral Science." The offering's objectives are to:

1) Discuss and study ways of establishing trust relationships in business (commerce and finance) when trust benefits exceed its costs and risks;

2) Explore the role of law in reducing costs and risks of trust relationships (e.g., contract and fiduciary laws); and

3) Introduce materials relating to the subject in other disciplines: economics, business, psychology, and sociology.

To demonstrate and experiment with techniques of fostering trust on-line, students will be asked to produce written work in small groups. These will then be posted to the Berkman Center's website and, where possible, published in print form.

Registration is closed.

INSTRUCTIONS:

The weekly lessons in this discussion series begin with a short (less than 20 written pages) set of readings and a hypothetical situation described by Professor Frankel.

The links in the side navigation bar correspond to these sections of the weekly lessons:

Introduction points to this page

Calendar offers a schedule of weekly lessons.

Syllabus gives an overview of upcoming lessons. Bear in mind that later weeks are not yet filled in.

Current Topic links to the hypothetical and readings offered in each week's segment.

The Reference area will hold relevant links as we discover them.

We ask for your Feedback as part of our research in distance learning. Follow the link or email trustfeedback@eon.law.harvard.edu at any time.

The first thing you should do each week is click on "Current Topic," at which point the Bot (our name for the entity behind our web scripts) will show you the lesson for the week, with links to Professor Frankel's lecture and the week's readings.

Instructions for using the Rotisserie:
(This does not apply to sections 2, 3, and 4.)

Every Monday, The Bot will send you a question via email; you have until midnight, Eastern Standard Time, on Thursday to respond. (If you don't respond by then, you can't submit a response for that week.)

Here's how to answer a question from The Bot:

Go to http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/trusting/ and click on "Current Topic" in the navbar.

Your browser will load a screen that displays the current lesson, readings, and questions. The questions will appear toward the bottom of the screen. At the beginning of each question you'll see a link. This week, the link is "Short Answer," but there are other kinds of questions we can ask. Click on that link.

Your browser will show you a screen that displays the question and, below that, a text box into which you can type an answer. You can also compose your answer in a word processor or other program and cut-or-paste it into the text box.

Then click on the "Submit" button to complete the process.

Once you have answered, your response will be emailed to another series participant in the section for his or her response. That will happen after midnight EST on Thursdays. In return, you will get someone else's answer to comment on. You submit your comments by following steps 1-4 above. You'll have until midnight EST on Sunday to submit that response. Afterwards, you may view all the exchanges by clicking on the "Rotisserie" link in the navbar.

The Berkman Center is presenting these series to the Internet public as a forum for learning and discussion. As part of our own research in cyberspace, we are experimenting with software for online communication and will be trying various forms of interaction throughout the series. Please bear in mind the experimental nature of this offering, especially in the early weeks.

Thank you for joining us on this journey!

--Professor Tamar Frankel and Teaching Fellows

Berkman Center for Internet & Society