From: "E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>
Date: Wed, 22 May 1996 15:32:21 +0800
To: frantz@netcom.com
Subject: Re: Senator, your public key please?
Message-ID: <01I4ZHNMMHLM8Y5IL9@mbcl.rutgers.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


From:	IN%"frantz@netcom.com" 18-MAY-1996 21:54:01.23

>This is exactly analogous to slanderous attack on someone's reputation.  As
>soon as people realize that the mere fact that a key has a signature does
>not mean that the key-owner solicited the signature, the problem goes away.

	This is interesting in light of social networks analysis as applied
to the web of trust (one interesting web-reference on such analysis is at
http://www.mpi-fg-koeln.mpg.de/~lk/netvis.html; as well as some examples - use
a graphics-capable web browser - it has some links to a FTP site with
programs). One method of such analysis uses what is sometimes called "gravity;"
under it, positions move to be close to those to which they are linked. This
can be one-way or two-way; the above fact may imply that signing someone's key
should move one closer to that person - and not the other way around. Of
course, when analyzing the result, one should keep in mind that one may not
have beneficial intent when signing a key; LD's signatures are examples. Thus,
closeness on such a network may imply a high degree of relationship, but not
a high degree of _positive_ relationship.
	-Allen