Exploration of Norms and Policies in Digital Fashion Domain Using Semantic Web Technologies

Soheil Roshankish, Nicoletta Fornara

Abstract: Nowadays, one of the problems in policy notice of fashion companies is that they are not provided in a machine-readable format; therefore, they cannot be searched and monitored by computers. The fact that most of the fashion brands transform their sales into digital format magnifies the importance of automation in policies management for the future of digital business in general and of fashion companies in particular. In this paper, we explore the use of privacy policies of companies in the digital fashion domain not only to protect customer’s data but for making it feasible for companies to understand their customer’s needs easier and faster. We describe how the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL), a W3C recommendation for expressing policies using Semantic Web Technologies, can be applied in the field of digital fashion. We then discuss the required components for making it possible to use such a policy language for monitoring and enforcement services.