Using Reputation to Change Web Surfing Habits

One of the more interesting twists to come out of a recent conversation I had with Paul Pluschkell, the CEO of Spigit, was a  novel way they're working with Cisco to  change  employee Web surfing habits.

Web surfing habits are a big concern of organizations today. Last year, the FCC became the butt of jokes when it was discovered that computers of several executives were filled with porn – porn that was watched during the financial crisis. An impending report we helped write with Osterman Research puts blocking unwanted content like porn or gambling from entering the enterprise as the No. 4 concern for IT executives, with more than three-quarters (76.2 percent) of respondents indicating that this was “important” or “very important.”

Blocking rogue sites is one approach, but what if instead you could incentivize people to use the Web constructively? You wouldn’t need to block sites or, at the very least, provide a positive reason not to waste time on the Web. The folks at Spigit have tests going on with Cisco where people improve their reputation in a community by browsing the Web constructively.

Reputation has been shown to be an effective motivator in communities, rewarding people through a systematic point system for their constructive contributions to the community. The more they contribute, the higher their rank in the community. The more points they earn, the more they can do within the community, whether it’s purchasing more shares in an idea, advertising to promote an idea or redeeming points at a company shop to purchase equipment and more.

Spigit does this by integrating its reputation engine with Cisco’s Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) engine. “Reputation APIs are there so you can, if you choose, take advantage of any type of third-party product, track where they’re visiting, giving them points and adding it to their reputation score.” The more time you spend on porn, the lower your rank.