Do Credentials give us credibility?

I think credentials do because they speak of accountability and commitment. The person or organization (which would be a group of individuals working towards the same goal) had to be committed in order to obtain the credentials. Also, their is a standard in which they had to achieve in order to obtain those credentials and we would hope that will be the standard that one would continue to hold oneself accountable to. So the question would be is: Can something that is accepted as credible to one culture or society be the same standard for another? And if not is that a barrier that can be transcended? When looking at a main objective of the InternetBar competition “IBO’s signature project is to promote economic justice by extending the reach of online payment systems to developing countries.” (Jeff Aresty, ‘Tonight’s Dinner with Tamar Frankel and others’), I think credibility within a cultural would be an interesting topic to explore. Do developing countries have the same need for assurance of one’s credibility, or is the fact that there is a working system in place enough to begin business transactions? Though I think that credential are important I also think that there is a limit to them. Such as I’m sure many of us have experience, just because someone has credentials doesn’t mean that they will conduct their business transactions with integrity. So I agree with some of our initial discussions that put an emphasis on the reputation of someone desiring to do business as that will further testify to ones credibility and integrity.