How do you know when someone is making a correct statement on the internet via Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn for example? How reliable is a certain tweet? Even more difficult: how do you determine that? Which factors are important to measure the authority of an online person ?
With the advent of social networks and microblogs, we are increasingly being 'thrown' information over us. We need filters to be able to manage this abundance of information. One of these filters can be the authority of a person on a certain subject. If the authority is high, you are more likely to believe the information from this person.
In daily life we often use charismatic leadership or legal-rational leadership (director or prime minister) to determine whether we can believe someone; this also determines the authority. Fortunately, the third form, traditional leadership (e.g. nobility), is almost absent on the web. How do you actually do this online?