A Trust Model Considering the Aspects of Time

Today, many trust models do exist which are based on bayesian systems, discrete values or the probability theory. Some of them are generic while others are specifically designed for certain applications such as p2p or ecommerce. What all these models have in common is the intention to map the human understanding of trust in a computational model. Some aspects of trust such as the direct trust towards another member or the reputation of said member have already been considered by fellow researchers while aspects such as sympathy or gut feeling will probably never be sufficiently integrated. The aspect, that experiences may age or be forgotten are currently incorporated in only few models. However, to our understanding the current approaches to aging are not satisfactory. We will point out the weak spot of the current aging approaches and present a refined version including the not yet discussed aspect of inactivity. Our proposed trust model incorporates this new approach, including methods on how to handle temporarily inactive members as well as the context-dependent computation of trust and reputation resulting in the valuation of a member's trustworthiness. Due to the generic approach, our proposed trust model can both be used for centralized and decentralized applications.