Trust, Complexity and Control

An increasing reliance on the Internet and mobile communication hasdeprived us of our usual means of assessing another party'strustworthiness. This is increasingly forcing us to rely oncontrol. Yet the notion of trust and trustworthiness isessential to the continued development of a technology-enabledsociety. Trust, Complexity and Control offers readers a single,consistent explanation of how the sociological concept of'trust' can be applied to a broad spectrum oftechnology-related areas; convergent communication, automatedagents, digital security, semantic web, artificial intelligence,e-commerce, e-government, privacy etc. It presents a model ofconfidence in which trust and control are driven and limited bycomplexity in one explanatory framework and demonstrates how thatframework can be applied to different research and applicationareas. Starting with the individual's assessment of trust,the book shows the reader how application of the framework canclarify misunderstandings and offer solutions to complexproblems. The uniqueness of Trust, Complexity and Control isits interdisciplinary treatment of a variety of diverse areas usinga single framework. Sections featured include: * Trust and distrust in the digital world. * The impact of convergent communication and networks ontrust. * Trust, economy and commerce. * Trust-enhancing technologies. Trust, Complexity and Control is an invaluable source ofreference for both researchers and practitioners within the Trustcommunity. It will also be of benefit to students and lecturers inthe fields of information technology, social sciences and computerengineering.