The basic idea behind WorkScore is that anyone with a company email address can review their workplace and colleagues. Furthermore, they can do it anonymously, leaving a little more freedom to be truthful about what they think. When reviewing a colleague on WorkScore, a person can document skills, write “thank you” notes and point to specific confirmations on the part of that colleague. Assessments are confidential, meaning that the subject of the assessment does not actually see it, although the information does contribute to an overall “WorkScore.”

While your first reaction to the idea of anonymous assessment may be concern, the subject of any review is able to choose whose assessments count. If you receive an assessment from someone who may not be perfectly objective about your abilities, you can instruct WorkScore to ignore that information.

Your WorkScore provides a clear picture of your skills when you’ve received a little information from your colleagues. You’ll have an overall numerical score that draws on how your co-workers have ranked you in different skills. You can also add any major contributions you’ve made to your employer — a viewer will be able to see whether or not your co-workers have confirmed your contributions.

WorkScore goes beyond just reviewing colleagues, however. You can also review the company you work for, and look through potential companies during your search for a job. All reviews of workplaces are anonymous — although you can’t add a review without an email address from that company — and they’re public. WorkScore focuses on providing information about the values of a particular company, as well as finding a good fit for yourself. You can also review a company as a client, business partner, supplier or other professional who doesn’t actually work for the company.

For web workers, the ability to add confirmation of your skills may be particularly useful. It offers an opportunity to not only tell a prospective employer that you’ve already worked as a telecommuter or independently, but to have your colleagues — perhaps a manager or team lead as well — describe how well you do when you work remotely, and can provide a shortcut to proving that you can work independently in a way that a traditional resume can’t.

It is necessary to get your co-workers on board with using WorkScore to document accomplishments and skills: a social resume just isn’t that useful if other people aren’t involved. Depending on your workplace, getting your colleagues and management on board with using WorkScore to rank each other could be a tough sell. Overall, however, the information that WorkScore could be just what employers need to better judge potential employees.

What do you think of the “social resume” concept?

It’s an interesting idea, a sort of formalization of the common practice of Googling people. If it becomes popular, the Divvs rating could serve as a quick way to size up potential collaborators and subcontractors. Of course, if it becomes popular, spammers will also try to figure out how to scam it – but we’re a ways off from that point yet. At the moment, it’s at least a fun exercise in comparing your networking level to those of your peers.