The FORA Framework

Online reputation management involves monitoring and influencing the online record of a person, organization, or product. The social web provides increasingly simple ways to publish and share personal or opinionated information, which can quickly have a negative impact on the online reputation of these entities. The author focuses on the social web and its integration with the semantic web as a resource for semi-automated tracking of online reputations using imprecise natural language terms. The inherent structure of natural language aids humans not only in communication but also in their perception of the world. Thus, fuzziness is a promising tool for transforming these human perceptions into computer artifacts. Through fuzzy grassroots ontologies, the social semantic web becomes more natural and can enhance online reputation management.