The advent of the Internet and the Web provide connectivity and information richness over great distances at any time. This has created a dynamic, open and convenient environment for social and business development. It not only provides the opportunity for new entrepreneurial endeavours utilizing the Web, but also opens up new opportunities for old, static, closed, locally based businesses to adopt new business paradigms and new organizational forms. The Internet has also opened up modes of interaction and dynamic organizational configurations that were previously inconceivable within a wide array of human and business activities. However, these have also introduced challenges. One of the most pressing of these arises from the fact that in a business or social interaction on the Internet, we cannot rely on the usual physical, facial and verbal cues that we might have relied on to reach a judgement as to whether or not the other party will fulfil the service that they are promising. In addition, in the case of the purchase of physical goods over the Internet, we have no direct physical, sensory contact with the specific product and are reliant solely on the promise of the seller. We are being put in the position of 'buying a pig in a poke', rather than being able to 'squeeze the tomatoes' to determine their firmness. There could, in some cases, be difficulties ensuring that the purchaser pays for the goods. These factors and several others, when taken together, create the imperative for being able to make judgements within such an environment about the other parties' trustworthiness and capability to provide the service at a specific level of quality. Through adopting new trust technology in the service-oriented network environment, a platform for both consumers and businesses to learn from each other is created. Thus, real business value, increased consumer confidence, guaranteed quality of product and service could become a reality in the virtual word.In this chapter, we study why trust is important and make clear distinctions between the concepts of trust and security. We also offer a detailed introduction to service-oriented environments, which are an integral part of a networked economy.
Why Trust?In recent times, we have seen an increasing number of people carrying out a myriad of different activities on the Internet. These range from writing reports to looking at the news, from selling a car to joining a club, from the purchase of goods (e.g., [1]) to the purchase of services (e.g., Priceline.com for travel arrangements), from entertainment (music or games) to research and