A flexible architecture for privacy-aware trust management

In service-oriented systems a constellation of services cooperate, sharing potentially sensitive information and responsibilities. Cooperation is only possible if the different participants trust each other. As trust may depend on many different factors, in a flexible framework for Trust Management (TM) trust must be computed by combining different types of information. In this paper we describe the TAS3 TM framework which integrates independent TM systems into a single trust decision point. The TM framework supports intricate combinations whilst still remaining easily extensible. It also provides a unified trust evaluation interface to the (authorization framework of the) services. We demonstrate the flexibility of the approach by integrating three distinct TM paradigms: reputation-based TM, credential-based TM, and Key Performance Indicator TM. Finally, we discuss privacy concerns in TM systems and the directions to be taken for the definition of a privacy-friendly TM architecture.\u

Security in online learning assessment towards an effective trustworthiness approach to support e-learning teams

(c) 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.This paper proposes a trustworthiness model for the design of secure learning assessment in on-line collaborative learning groups. Although computer supported collaborative learning has been widely adopted in many educational institutions over the last decade, there exist still drawbacks which limit their potential in collaborative learning activities. Among these limitations, we investigate information security requirements in on-line assessment, (e-assessment), which can be developed in collaborative learning contexts. Despite information security enhancements have been developed in recent years, to the best of our knowledge, integrated and holistic security models have not been completely carried out yet. Even when security advanced methodologies and technologies are deployed in Learning Management Systems, too many types of vulnerabilities still remain opened and unsolved. Therefore, new models such as trustworthiness approaches can overcome these lacks and support e-assessment requirements for e-Learning. To this end, a trustworthiness model is designed in order to conduct the guidelines of a holistic security model for on-line collaborative learning through effective trustworthiness approaches. In addition, since users' trustworthiness analysis involves large amounts of ill-structured data, a parallel processing paradigm is proposed to build relevant information modeling trustworthiness levels for e-Learning.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Trust based collaborative filtering

k-nearest neighbour (kNN) collaborative filtering (CF), the widely successful algorithm supporting recommender systems, attempts to relieve the problem of information overload by generating predicted ratings for items users have not expressed their opinions about; to do so, each predicted rating is computed based on ratings given by like-minded individuals. Like-mindedness, or similarity-based recommendation, is the cause of a variety of problems that plague recommender systems. An alternative view of the problem, based on trust, offers the potential to address many of the previous limiations in CF. In this work we present a varation of kNN, the trusted k-nearest recommenders (or kNR) algorithm, which allows users to learn who and how much to trust one another by evaluating the utility of the rating information they receive. This method redefines the way CF is performed, and while avoiding some of the pitfalls that similarity-based CF is prone to, outperforms the basic similarity-based methods in terms of prediction accuracy

Trust-Networks in Recommender Systems

Similarity-based recommender systems suffer from significant limitations, such as data sparseness and scalability. The goal of this research is to improve recommender systems by incorporating the social concepts of trust and reputation. By introducing a trust model we can improve the quality and accuracy of the recommended items. Three trust-based recommendation strategies are presented and evaluated against the popular MovieLens [8] dataset

Antecedents of trust in international joint ventures' (IJVS) performance in developing countries: A review of empirical evidence

Trust in international joint venture has received much attention for the last 20 years. This study highlights the importance of social capital in international joint ventures (IJVs) in developing countries. This paper assesses the impact of antecedents of trust on performance of international joint ventures in developing countries, which is based on social exchange theory. Little attention has been paid to exploring the concept in IJV. The impacts of components of inter partner-fits and relational factors on trust and the effect of trust on performance of IJVs will be considered. In addition the impact of religion and country risk on level of trust in IJVs in these countries will be evaluated. A framework has been developed based on this review analyses and integrates empirical evidence in order to identify convergence and conflict in IJV. The paper addresses a problem of relevance to both international academics and practitioners in addressing managerial implications. It is hoped that the study will provide a meaningful implication to the process of selection of IJV partners

Reading the story of law and embeddedness through a community lens: A Polanyi-meets-Cotterrell economic sociology of law?

In this article I propose that the role of law in Karl Polanyi’s concept of the “always embedded economy”1 can be enriched by the application of the “lens of community”2developed by Roger Cotterrell.3I begin with Polanyi’s suggestion that economic action and interaction are always “embedded” in wider social life. Reading through the lens of community, we can be more specific: any actor is at once engaged, to different degrees (from fleeting to stable), in multiple types (whether focusing on instrumental, traditional, affective and/or belief-based action) of social life. I then explore a second, implicit, cornerstone of Polanyi’s argument: that analytical and normative approaches to economy may become disembedded from wider social life. Reading through the lens of community we can again be more specific: in the transformation to a market society, the analytical and normative approaches that are central to economic actions and interactions are confused with, and privileged over, those that are central to non-economic actions and interactions. This confusion and privileging can have what we might call a performative effect on action and interaction. Finally, I explore Polanyi’s story of law as a facilitator both of disembedding movements and of re-embedding counter- movements. The application of a law-and-community lens suggests some additional details of that storyline and that there are additional plotlines to be pursued. The practical potential of this Polanyi-meets-Cotterrell economic sociology of law is briefly illustrated with references to two twenty-first-century cautionary tales: the World Bank’s investment climate programme and the 2008 financial crisis

CHORUS Deliverable 2.2: Second report - identification of multi-disciplinary key issues for gap analysis toward EU multimedia search engines roadmap

After addressing the state-of-the-art during the first year of Chorus and establishing the existing landscape in multimedia search engines, we have identified and analyzed gaps within European research effort during our second year. In this period we focused on three directions, notably technological issues, user-centred issues and use-cases and socio- economic and legal aspects. These were assessed by two central studies: firstly, a concerted vision of functional breakdown of generic multimedia search engine, and secondly, a representative use-cases descriptions with the related discussion on requirement for technological challenges. Both studies have been carried out in cooperation and consultation with the community at large through EC concertation meetings (multimedia search engines cluster), several meetings with our Think-Tank, presentations in international conferences, and surveys addressed to EU projects coordinators as well as National initiatives coordinators. Based on the obtained feedback we identified two types of gaps, namely core technological gaps that involve research challenges, and “enablers”, which are not necessarily technical research challenges, but have impact on innovation progress. New socio-economic trends are presented as well as emerging legal challenges