Encouraging the Reuse of Knowledge in Communities of Practice by Using a Trust Model

One technique with which to foster knowledge reuse in organizations is that of communities of practice where the feeling of trust between members is highly important in the sharing and reuse of knowledge. However, CoPs members are currently often geographically distributed, which decreases this feeling of trust. It is consequently more difficult for them to know how trustworthy a fellow-member is. This work attempts to assist CoPs members in deciding what or who to trust. One contribution of this work is a trust model which takes into account certain factors that human beings consciously or unconsciously use when they have to decide whether or not to trust in something or somebody. Moreover, in order to illustrate how the model can be used, a tool with which to recommend documents is described.