E-business Briefing: November 2005

Paul Walsh is the co-founder and CEO of Segala M Test, responsible for the strategic planning, aggressive growth and the day to day running of the company.

Paul's experience sees a perfect marriage between the Internet and Mobile industries – an ideal platform to run a company that spans both sectors.

Can you sum up the Segala trustmark scheme for our readers?

Although trustmarks exist around the world, Segala is the first company to apply machine-readable labels to web accessibility and mobile content by providing a trustmark that is detectable by Internet search engines and browsers. Allow me to cover the accessibility trustmark specifically to demonstrate the concept.

ICRA (Internet Content Rating Association) approached Segala with a request to collaborate so in addition to accessibility information, the label includes ICRA descriptors for child protection. Segala donates a percentage of its profit to ICRA for every site that we label for child protection.

What does the trustmark do and why do websites need it?

The trustmark allows search engines and browsers to make direct use of machine-readable content labels thereby improving personalised search. 

For example, a user may choose a service that gives more prominence to sites that can be shown to be reliably labeled with systems such as Segala's and ICRA's. Visitors can then make an informed decision about whether they wish to enter a particular site.

Why do websites need it? The short answer is, to ensure they are prominent in search results.

What’s your involvement with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)?

I dedicate quite a lot of my time to various standards bodies and consortiums. The W3C is the one that takes the majority of my time as I’m very passionate about simplifying the Web without losing creativity, and removing barriers that stop people from accessing it.

Segala is a founding sponsor of the Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) where I’m a member of the steering council. My role here is to coordinate and roll out new best practices and guidelines for the future Web on small screens such as PDAs and mobile phones – what a task this is proving to be!

I’m also a committee member of the Web Accessibility Initiative, assisting with the revision of the WAI guidelines to help make them easier to understand and more testable.

Who else supports the trustmark scheme?

The short answer is everyone we’ve been talking to over the past couple of months is doing summersaults; some browsers are actually falling over themselves to steal the limelight from one another by trying to be the first to read the new metadata.

The trustmark is being used by the Quatro project, part of the EU Safer Internet Programme, as its primary case study for how ‘controlled’ self-regulated trustmarks can be implemented. My guess is that the EU eAccessibility programme will choose this route.

Moreover, our content label is soon to be formalised by the W3C.

The ‘incubator’ project to formalise the label is also being managed by Segala. We need three brands to endorse the label and these are in place with Vodafone Group, T-Mobile and Segala. O2 are now keen to show their support and we’re currently talking to Microsoft amongst others.

Is it independent? Are there rival schemes in the offing, or launched?

It’s independent in terms of the overall programme of trust being independently managed by Segala to ensure “trust” is always maintained.

I don’t see organisations that offer validation services such as the RNIB as rivals because they too can use our content label to make claims about the work they have done. They can label their customers’ websites without the need to use Segala’s visual logo – they are merely labelling sites to ensure they’re displayed prominently by search engines and browsers.

The Quatro project (and Segala) would like to involve as many credible trustmarks as possible to cover as many areas as possible. Our goal is to enable trust for the Internet, allowing users to find the information they are looking for and to trust that information. Under the Quatro project, there are already a number of trustmarks gearing up to provide trust in various areas such as medical sites.

Is the trustmark commercially available yet? How and when will it be rolled out?

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Yes it has been available for a while, but we chose not to tell anyone about it until we had all of our credentials and affiliations in place. As a result, Segala the company can now be trusted within the industry at large.

O2 Plc is the first company worldwide to use Segala’s new metadata trustmark and is now being referenced by the W3C – the ICRA descriptors have been added already. Segala is also responsible for the certification of O2 UK’s entire Web based roster worldwide, so many of the top interactive agencies in the UK will be signed up to the process very soon. In fact, some agencies have asked if they can become Segala certified partners.

How much will it cost?

The cost of self-regulated certification is under review. Suffice to say, it’ll be very low cost so even a freelance developer in their bedroom could easily afford to label their own content. Segala will then independently spot-check sites to ensure they meet the claims that are promised. Low cost, mass market is what we’re looking to achieve.

How does the labelling system work?

Self-regulated certification is a matter of ticking some boxes on a web page to represent claims. The content label (metadata) is then automatically generated and Segala’s central database is populated with certified URLs and claims for future cross referencing. The new site that will offer the automated service is due to launch in a few weeks. Until then, we can do the work manually with a 48 hour turnaround.

Is this Trustmark scheme going to be defined by peer activity (eg other users label a site as ‘profane’) or webmaster activity (‘my website is profane’)?

Content needs to be labelled by the webmaster for the benefit of ensuring that their sites are prominent in search results. Users will then be able to rate the trustworthiness of the content so future users will be able to make a qualified opinion about entering the site or not.

What will happen if a website breaches the code of conduct?

To begin with, Segala would get in touch with the site in question to discuss whatever issues that have been raised. Our intention is to encourage feedback that’s used for the purpose of putting something right, not to revoke a trustmark. 

However, if it’s obvious that a site is blatantly breaking the rules of conduct by labelling their sites as child friendly when in fact it’s a porn site, then we’ll revoke the trustmark and blacklist the URL so it’s ‘not to be trusted’ by search engines and browsers! There’s no PR around this, just a few tweaks to what search engines and browsers will display.

Do you think that the search engines will start actively looking for trustmarks? Might this impact on search results, rendering trustmarks obligatory?

They will actively look for trustmarks. As I said earlier, browsers are falling over themselves to be the first to support content rating and quality labelling.

We’re also meeting with the leading search engines in the US this week.

Do you envisage a time when search engines will penalise rankings, for companies that have been reprimanded or kicked off the trustmark scheme? 

If companies have been reprimanded or kicked off the trustmark scheme they will be rated as ‘not to be trusted’. Users can then make an informed decision as to whether they want to display those sites in their search results. The bottom line is, be trusted or people won’t want to use your site.

Is the end goal to allow users to manage their ‘trust levels’ via the search engines, or via their browser?
Ah, looks like you’ve been spending way too much spare time searching the depths of the semantic web, or reading Tim Berners-Lee’s next vision in Time magazine, or you are indeed a fly on the wall at Segala HQ in Dublin.

Segala’s aim is to allow users to rate trustmarks themselves. That would mean users who visit a site that make false claims will be able to indirectly warn future visitors by giving trustmarks a negative rating. The result is internet policing – true self-regulation that’s quality driven.

Until a recent director’s dinner, where I met Ian Hayward of Glaxstar, I thought it was going to take around two years to deliver true semantic Web capability for search engines and browsers.

Everything that I have talked about will be possible very soon. With help from Glaxstar, Segala is due to launch its own branded Firefox browser that will allow users to base search results on trust. This browser will blow your mind!

Paul was interviewed by Chris Lake, editor. Comments to chris@e-consultancy.com or start a discussion on the forum.

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