Can we manage trust?

Abstract

The term trust management suggests that trust can be managed, for example by creating trust, by assessing trustworthiness, or by determining optimal decisions based on specific levels of trust. The problem to date is that trust management in online environments is a diverse and ill defined discipline. In fact, the term trust management is being used with very different meanings in different contexts. This paper examines various approaches related to online activities where trust is relevant and where there is potential for trust management. In some cases, trust management has been defined with specific meanings. In other cases, there are well established disciplines with different names that could also be called trust management. Despite the confusion in terminology, trust management, as a general approach, represents a promising development for making online transactions more dependable, and in the long term for increasing the social capital of online communities.