Trust ontologies for e-service environments

In this article, we introduce trust ontologies. An ontology represents a set of concepts that are commonly shared and agreed to by all parties in a particular domain. Here, we introduce generic and specific trust ontologies. These ontologies include the following: an agent trust ontology and trustworthiness; agents include sellers, service providers, Web sites, brokers, shops, suppliers, buyers, or reviewers. A services trust ontology and trustworthiness assists in measuring the quality of service that agents provide in the service-oriented environment such as sales, orders, track and trace, warehousing, logistics, education, governance, advertising, entertainment, trading, online databases, virtual community services, security, information services, opinions, and e-reviews. A goods or products trust ontology and trustworthiness is useful for measuring the quality of products such as commercial products, information products, entertainment products, or second-hand products. We present a trust ontology that is suitable for all types of agents that exist in the service-oriented environment. As agent trust is measured through the quality of goods and services, we introduce two additional distinct concepts of service trust ontology and product trust ontology. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.