Some applications online will require some kind of validation that the address being used to access meets a certain criteria example criteria:
- Check if an address belongs to a human being
- Check if a person is a member of a group
- Check if a address can be trusted for a certain onchain activity
Different applications require different levels of trust and methods of gaining the necessary trust. Reputation is a program that creates an account where a address can link all of their different sources. Applications then have a central place to look for all the attributes they require before granting access.
Network is a program which workd with reputation as a reputation source. With network a user creates an account which is verified by web2 OAuth and Captcha. A user then gets reputation by being taged by other people he meets who are using network. Suppose you meet a person at a party who uses network they can tag you whic is essentially saying yea I know you you are a real person.