ABSTRACT
A virtual community can be defined as a group of people sharing a common interest or goal who interact over a virtual medium, most commonly the Internet. Virtual communities are characterized by an absence of face-to-face interaction between participants that makes the task of measuring the trustworthiness of other participants harder than in non-virtual communities. This is due to the anonymity that the Internet provides, coupled with the loss of audiovisual cues that help in the establishment of trust. As a result, digital reputation management systems are an invaluable tool for measuring trust in virtual communities.
