Web services for presence based application development

This thesis proposes a novel Web service based API for presence based application development that is protocol, network, language, platform and architecture independent. The proposed API is highly abstracted with the intention that even non-telephony experts like IT developers should be able to incorporate the presence functionalities for creating services. Two case studies are also provided to show the usefulness, completeness and flexibility of the proposed API. A subset of the API is implemented as a Web service gateway and mapped to a SIMPLE based presence server besides that Web service based clients are also prototyped. One of the main aims of this research work is to see the feasibility of using the Web services middleware for telecommunication application development; therefore performance measurements are also done. The analysis of the results show that although Web services introduces additional overhead because of XML based SOAP messages it is insignificant compared to the interoperability and easier application development features offered by this middleware. (Abstract shortened by UMI.

Implementing TOPSIS method in Selecting the Best Bus Transportation Services

Public transportation using express bus services are widely used by the public nowadays and many bus companies offer services to major cities as well as providing additional features and facilities to attract passengers. However, the passengers often face a problem in selecting and choosing the bus companies that give the best services for them according to their preferences. The purpose of this study is to identify the best bus transportation services based on MCDM approach using the TOPSIS method. The web application development follows the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology that contains four phases which are planning, designing, testing and implementing using PHP and MySQL database as tools for development. It enables users who already used the bus services to give the rating and the users who want to use the bus services give their priority for each criterion that they choose either low, high or very high. The web application will generate the result, which is the best bus companies according to TOPSIS rules. The presence of this web application can help the society to choose the best bus services that follow their preferences

Virtual Location-Based Services: Merging the Physical and Virtual World

Location-based services gained much popularity through providing users with helpful information with respect to their current location. The search and recommendation of nearby locations or places, and the navigation to a specific location are some of the most prominent location-based services. As a recent trend, virtual location-based services consider webpages or sites associated with a location as 'virtual locations' that online users can visit in spite of not being physically present at the location. The presence of links between virtual locations and the corresponding physical locations (e.g., geo-location information of a restaurant linked to its website), allows for novel types of services and applications which constitute virtual location-based services (VLBS). The quality and potential benefits of such services largely depends on the existence of websites referring to physical locations. In this paper, we investigate the usefulness of linking virtual and physical locations. For this, we analyze the presence and distribution of virtual locations, i.e., websites referring to places, for two Irish cities. Using simulated tracks based on a user movement model, we investigate how mobile users move through the Web as virtual space. Our results show that virtual locations are omnipresent in urban areas, and that the situation that a user is close to even several such locations at any time is rather the normal case instead of the exception

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