Seniority as a Metric in Reputation Systems for E-Commerce

ii Acknowledgements iii List of Figures viii List of Tables x List of Notations and Abbreviations xi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Overview 1 1.2 Motivation and Approach 3 1.3 Contributions 5 1.4 Thesis Outline 6 Chapter 2: Reputation Systems in E-Commerce 8 2.1 Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 8 2.2 Trust and Reputation Systems 10 2.2.1 Reputation System Operation 15 Chapter 3: Types of Reputation Systems 18 3.1 Centralized and Decentralized Systems 19 3.2 Parameters 20 3.3 Aging Factor in Reputation Systems 28 3.4 Community Structure in Reputation Systems 29 Chapter 4: Seniority to Measure Credibility in Reputation Systems 32 4.1 The Problem 33