General Trust Management - GTM

This paper presents General Trust Management (GTM), a functional trust model that is applicable in multiple problem domains. GTM explicitly handles trust management functions including trust formation, dissemination and evolution. GTM is a generalization of Trust in Smart Spaces (TISS), a trust model that targets smart space scenarios. The generalization is performed with attention to preserving the richness of TISS, including the ability to handle multi-link trust decisions, stereotyping by dividing participants into user defined classes, and personalization through the use of privacy policies. GTM´s generality is validated by demonstrating its applicability in diverse problem domains namely: service provision, packet routing and content management.