SCLP for trust propagation in small-world networks

Abstract

We propose Soft Constraint Logic Programming based on semirings as a mean to easily represent and evaluate trust propagation in small-world networks. To attain this, we model the trust network adapting it to a weighted and-or graph, where the weight on a connector corresponds to the trust and confidence feedback values among the connected nodes. Semirings are the parametric and flexible structures used to appropriately represent trust metrics. Social (and not only) networks present small-world properties: most nodes can be reached from every other by a small number of hops. These features can be exploited to reduce the computational complexity of the model. In the same model we also introduce the concept of multitrust, which is aimed at computing trust by collectively involving a group of trustees at the same time. © 2008 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.