Delivery of Personalized and Adaptive Content to Mobile Devices:A Framework and Enabling Technology

Many innovative wireless applications that aim to provide mobile information access are emerging. Since people have different information needs and preferences, one of the challenges for mobile information systems is to take advantage of the convenience of handheld devices and provide personalized information to the right person in a preferred format. However, the unique features of wireless networks and mobile devices pose challenges to personalized mobile content delivery. This paper proposes a generic framework for delivering personalized and adaptive content to mobile users. It introduces a variety of enabling technologies and highlights important issues in this area. The framework can be applied to many applications such as mobile commerce and context-aware mobile services

Object-Oriented Business Solutions

This report summarises the presentations, discussions, and main results of the ECOOP’01 Workshop on Object-Oriented Business Solutions (WOOBS). It was not a pure scientific meeting, but a mixed gathering where people from the industry and the academia met to exchange ideas, experiences and build a network of relationships with others committed to the emergence of object-oriented business solutions. WOOBS had an invited talk on quality of service, twelve presentations and lively discussions during and after them. The main conclusions were on the importance of Multi-Organisational Web-Based Systems in today’s e-commerce world, which justifies the study of a new multidisciplinary paradigm called Web-Oriented Programming

Survival in the e-conomy: 2nd Australian information warfare & security conference 2001

This is an international conference for academics and industry specialists in information warfare, security, and other related fields. The conference has drawn participants from national and international organisations

Investigation of an intelligent personalised service recommendation system in an IMS based cellular mobile network

Success or failure of future information and communication services in general and mobile communications in particular is greatly dependent on the level of personalisations they can offer. While the provision of anytime, anywhere, anyhow services has been the focus of wireless telecommunications in recent years, personalisation however has gained more and more attention as the unique selling point of mobile devices. Smart phones should be intelligent enough to match user’s unique needs and preferences to provide a truly personalised service tailored for the individual user. In the first part of this thesis, the importance and role of personalisation in future mobile networks is studied. This is followed, by an agent based futuristic user scenario that addresses the provision of rich data services independent of location. Scenario analysis identifies the requirements and challenges to be solved for the realisation of a personalised service. An architecture based on IP Multimedia Subsystem is proposed for mobility and to provide service continuity whilst roaming between two different access standards. Another aspect of personalisation, which is user preference modelling, is investigated in the context of service selection in a multi 3rd party service provider environment. A model is proposed for the automatic acquisition of user preferences to assist in service selection decision-making. User preferences are modelled based on a two-level Bayesian Metanetwork. Personal agents incorporating the proposed model provide answers to preference related queries such as cost, QoS and service provider reputation. This allows users to have their preferences considered automatically

Cyber-Extortion: Duties and Liabilities Related to the Elephant in the Server Room

This is a comprehensive analysis of the legal frameworks related to cyber-extortion – the practice of demanding money in exchange for not carrying out threats to commit harm that would involve a victim\u27s information systems. The author hopes it will catalyze an urgently needed discussion of relevant public policy concerns. Cyber-extortion has, by all accounts, become a common, professionalized and profit-driven criminal pursuit targeting businesses. 17% of businesses in a recent survey indicated having received a cyber-extortion demand. An additional 13% of respondents were not sure if their business had received such a demand. Awareness of the risks of cybercrime has spread. Advancements have been made in the field of cyber-security. Furthermore, statutes, regulations and recent FTC settlements have begun to articulate a minimum standard of care that businesses should maintain with regard to the security of information systems. Yet not all businesses have taken readily available precautions. To complicate matters, cyber-extortions often involve a threat to commit a harm using hijacked networks of computers owned by other businesses. Thus, an analysis specifically dedicated to cyber-extortion is required because of the unique web of liabilities that may arise from a typical cyber-extortion scenario. This article first reviews the available means for prosecuting or recovering damages from a cyber-extortionist. The article then considers the duties and potential liabilities of businesses that are victims of cyber-extortion. For example, an extortionist may follow-through on a threat to disclose or sell private customer data, resulting in the targeted enterprise being liable to its customers. However, a victimized business could conceivably be able to recover damages against a business that failed to take adequate steps to secure its information systems, such that its systems became the tools of the crime. This article reviews current trends and possible theories for recovering damages in such a scenario. The article concludes with a discussion of the public policy implications of finding businesses liable for damages caused by their unsecured information systems

The e-revolution and post-compulsory education: using e-business models to deliver quality education

The best practices of e-business are revolutionising not just technology itself but the whole process through which services are provided; and from which important lessons can be learnt by post-compulsory educational institutions. This book aims to move debates about ICT and higher education beyond a simple focus on e-learning by considering the provision of post-compulsory education as a whole. It considers what we mean by e-business, why e-business approaches are relevant to universities and colleges and the key issues this raises for post-secondary education

Department of Computer Science Activity 1998-2004

This report summarizes much of the research and teaching activity of the Department of Computer Science at Dartmouth College between late 1998 and late 2004. The material for this report was collected as part of the final report for NSF Institutional Infrastructure award EIA-9802068, which funded equipment and technical staff during that six-year period. This equipment and staff supported essentially all of the department\u27s research activity during that period

The Benefits and Costs of Online Privacy Legislation

Many people are concerned that information about their private life is more readily available and more easily captured on the Internet as compared to offline technologies. Specific concerns include unwanted email, credit card fraud, identity theft, and harassment. This paper analyzes key issues surrounding the protection of online privacy. It makes three important contributions: First, it provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of the estimated benefits and costs of regulating online privacy. Second, it provides the most comprehensive evaluation of legislation and legislative proposals in the U.S. aimed at protecting online privacy. Finally, it offers some policy prescriptions for the regulation of online privacy and suggests areas for future research. After analyzing the current debate on online privacy and assessing the potential costs and benefits of proposed regulations, our specific recommendations concerning the government's involvement in protecting online privacy include the following: The government should fund research that evaluates the effectiveness of existing privacy legislation before considering new regulations. The government should not generally regulate matters of privacy differently based on whether an issue arises online or offline. The government should not require a Web site to provide notification of its privacy policy because the vast majority of commercial U.S.-based Web sites already do so. The government should distinguish between how it regulates the use and dissemination of highly sensitive information, such as certain health records or Social Security numbers, versus more general information, such as consumer name and purchasing habits. The government should not require companies to provide consumers broad access to the personal information that is collected online for marketing purposes because the benefits do not appear to be significant and the costs could be quite high. The government should make it easier for the public to obtain information on online privacy and the tools available for consumers to protect their own privacy. The message of this paper is not that online privacy should be unregulated, but rather that policy makers should think through their options carefully, weighing the likely costs and benefits of each proposal.