From the In Box: Blogging About Blogging XXIII
Are you familiar with the Advogato "trust-metric"? They have the theory down to extrapolate a network of trust rankings that might mechanically realize the networks you're describing without them needing a name -- in fact, they would only be nameable as "yours" because the details of whom you trust and how much would be uniquely yours. No doubt patterns would emerge (like art movements) based on natural affinities.

Apparently the SourceForge project has adapted this idea to ranking developers, but I can't find any general write-up of how it works. Not sure if anyone else has implemented anything based on the ideas. -- Joe Germuska