Social Web Identity Established upon Trust and Reputations

Online social networks have become a seamless and critical online communication platform for personal interactions. They are a powerful tool that businesses are using to expand among domestic markets. The increase in participation in online social networking can and has caused damage to individuals and organizations, and the issuance of trust has become a concern on the social web. The factors determining the reputation of persons (customers) in the real world may relate to the factors of reputation on the social web, though relative to how trust is established in the physical world, establishing trust on the social web can be fairly difficult. Determining how to trust another individual’s online social profile becomes critical in initiating any interaction on the social web. Rather than focusing on content on the social network page, this research proposes and examines the application of user reputations to determine whether the trust should be issued on the social web. A top-level framework to establish trust in an identity on the Social Network Sites (SNS) as a function of the users’ associations, usage patterns and reputation on the social web is presented.