Mobile support in CSCW applications and groupware development frameworks

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is an established subset of the field of Human Computer Interaction that deals with the how people use computing technology to enhance group interaction and collaboration. Mobile CSCW has emerged as a result of the progression from personal desktop computing to the mobile device platforms that are ubiquitous today. CSCW aims to not only connect people and facilitate communication through using computers; it aims to provide conceptual models coupled with technology to manage, mediate, and assist collaborative processes. Mobile CSCW research looks to fulfil these aims through the adoption of mobile technology and consideration for the mobile user. Facilitating collaboration using mobile devices brings new challenges. Some of these challenges are inherent to the nature of the device hardware, while others focus on the understanding of how to engineer software to maximize effectiveness for the end-users. This paper reviews seminal and state-of-the-art cooperative software applications and development frameworks, and their support for mobile devices

Program your city: Designing an urban integrated open data API

Cities accumulate and distribute vast sets of digital information. Many decision-making and planning processes in councils, local governments and organisations are based on both real-time and historical data. Until recently, only a small, carefully selected subset of this information has been released to the public – usually for specific purposes (e.g. train timetables, release of planning application through websites to name just a few). This situation is however changing rapidly. Regulatory frameworks, such as the Freedom of Information Legislation in the US, the UK, the European Union and many other countries guarantee public access to data held by the state. One of the results of this legislation and changing attitudes towards open data has been the widespread release of public information as part of recent Government 2.0 initiatives. This includes the creation of public data catalogues such as data.gov.au (U.S.), data.gov.uk (U.K.), data.gov.au (Australia) at federal government levels, and datasf.org (San Francisco) and data.london.gov.uk (London) at municipal levels. The release of this data has opened up the possibility of a wide range of future applications and services which are now the subject of intensified research efforts. Previous research endeavours have explored the creation of specialised tools to aid decision-making by urban citizens, councils and other stakeholders (Calabrese, Kloeckl & Ratti, 2008; Paulos, Honicky & Hooker, 2009). While these initiatives represent an important step towards open data, they too often result in mere collections of data repositories. Proprietary database formats and the lack of an open application programming interface (API) limit the full potential achievable by allowing these data sets to be cross-queried. Our research, presented in this paper, looks beyond the pure release of data. It is concerned with three essential questions: First, how can data from different sources be integrated into a consistent framework and made accessible? Second, how can ordinary citizens be supported in easily composing data from different sources in order to address their specific problems? Third, what are interfaces that make it easy for citizens to interact with data in an urban environment? How can data be accessed and collected

The internet and sustainable development

The past thirty years have seen tremendous growth in the capabilities and reach of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The Internet, especially, has become a critical enabler of social and economic change, transforming how government, business and citizens interact and offering new ways of addressing development challenges. A new approach to development will be agreed this year, when the United Nations adopts a Post-2015 Development Agenda based around Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Internet Society is convinced that the Internet is a unique platform for innovation, creativity, economic opportunity and social inclusion, which can make a major contribution to achieving these. This briefing describes the Internet’s potential and identifies priorities for action. The Internet will be a powerful enabler for the Sustainable Development Goals which will be adopted in September 2015. Its impact will be felt in all development sectors, from health and education, through agriculture and innovation, to security and the environment. It will increase as the capabilities and reach of Internet networks and services continue to grow rapidly while the Post-2015 Development Agenda is implemented between 2015 and 2030. More attention must be paid to the relationship between the Internet and sustainable development to ensure that potential gains are maximized. All stakeholders share responsibility to work together to develop policies, services, tools and applications that will bring the benefits of Internet access and use to everyone, improving access to health and education, spreading information and knowledge, enabling innovation and enterprise, and thereby promoting economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability. The Internet Society is ready to play its full part in fulfilling that sustainable development agenda

Building distributed heterogeneous smart phone Java applications an evaluation from a development perspective

The advances in mobile phone technology have enabled such devices to be programmed to run general-purpose applications using a special edition of the Java programming language. Java is designed to be a heterogeneous programming language targeting different platforms. Such ability when coupled with the provision of high-speed mobile Internet access would open the door for a new breed of distributed mobile applications. This paper explores the capabilities and limitations of this technology and addresses the considerations that must be taken when designing and developing such distributed applications. Our findings are verified by building a test client-server system where the clients in this system are mobile phones behaving as active processing elements not just mere service requesters

Parking goes mobile: a research proposal

This paper presents a research proposal to study the process to create a mobile application considering important restrictions on the development schedule and on the team size. The objective of the application is to help citizens to find parking spots in urban context. A theoretical framework is presented, based on several dimensions, such as the software development approach, the different mobile application’s types and its implications, the specific design issues for mobile applications, the technological frameworks that could be used, and an analysis of the existent applications that have similar objectives. The research proposal is described: its objectives, the research question, and a discussion on technical options related with the dimensions of the theoretical framework. The following steps of the project are outlined