Middleware for social computing: a roadmap
01 May 2012-Journal of Internet Services and Applications (Springer London)-Vol. 3, Iss: 1, pp 117-125
TL;DR: This work identifies three societal grand challenges that are likely to drive future research in social computing and elaborate on how the middleware community can help address them.
Abstract: Social computing broadly refers to supporting social behaviours using computational systems. In the last decade, the advent of Web 2.0 and its social networking services, wikis, blogs, and social bookmarking has revolutionised social computing, creating new online contexts within which people interact socially (social networking). With the pervasiveness of mobile devices and embedded sensors, we stand at the brink of another major revolution, where the boundary between online and offline social behaviours blurs, providing opportunities for (re)defining social conventions and contexts once again. But opportunities come with challenges: can middleware foster the engineering of social software? We identify three societal grand challenges that are likely to drive future research in social computing and elaborate on how the middleware community can help address them.
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TL;DR: The architectural evolution required to ensure that the rollout and deployment of smart city technologies is smooth through acknowledging and integrating the strengths of both the system architectures proposed is discussed.
Abstract: Smart cities have rapidly become a hot topic within technology communities, and promise both improved delivery of services to end users and reduced environmental impact in an era of unprecedented urbanization. Both large hightech companies and grassroots citizen-led initiatives have begun exploring the potential of these technologies. Significant barriers remain to the successful rollout and deployment of business models outlined for smart city applications and services, however. Most of these barriers pertain to an ongoing battle between two main schools of thought for system architecture, ICT and telecommunications, proposed for data management and service creation. Both of these system architectures represent a certain type of value chain and the legacy perspective of the respective players that wish to enter the smart city arena. Smart cities services, however, utilize components of both the ICT industry and mobile telecommunications industries, and do not benefit from the current binary perspective of system architecture. The business models suggested for the development of smart cities require a longterm strategic view of system architecture evolution. This article discusses the architectural evolution required to ensure that the rollout and deployment of smart city technologies is smooth through acknowledging and integrating the strengths of both the system architectures proposed.
178 citations
Cites background from "Middleware for social computing: a ..."
...Much of the proposed analysis of data within a smart city context is useless without the social context [4] of the data, however....
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...…have as their basis " the ability to access much broader and bigger amounts of data, linked to the individuals and the society of which they are the fabric: for example Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) -based smartcards give a fine-grained picture of how public transport is being used " [4]....
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TL;DR: Mayer-Schonberger as discussed by the authors is the director of the Information and Informatics Institute at Princeton University, New Jersey, US$24.95 (hardback), ISBN 978•0•691•13861•9
Abstract: by Viktor Mayer‐Schonberger, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2009, 237 pp., US$24.95 (hardback), ISBN 978‐0‐691‐13861‐9 Viktor Mayer‐Schonberger is the director of the Information and In...
138 citations
TL;DR: A practical implementation and experimental evaluations of S-Aframe are presented to demonstrate its reliability and efficiency in terms of computation and communication performance on popular mobile devices and a VSN-based smart ride application is developed to demonstrate the functionality and practical usefulness of the framework.
Abstract: This paper presents S-Aframe, an agent-based multilayer framework with context-aware semantic service (CSS) to support the development and deployment of context-aware applications for vehicular social networks (VSNs) formed by in-vehicle or mobile devices used by drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. The programming model of the framework incorporates features that support collaborations between mobile agents to provide communication services on behalf of owner applications, and service (or resident) agents to provide application services on mobile devices. Using this model, different self-adaptive applications and services for VSNs can be effectively developed and deployed. Built on top of the mobile devices’ operating systems, the framework architecture consists of framework service layer, software agent layer and owner application layer. Integrated with the proposed novel CSS, applications developed on the framework can autonomously and intelligently self-adapt to rapidly changing network connectivity and dynamic contexts of VSN users. A practical implementation and experimental evaluations of S-Aframe are presented to demonstrate its reliability and efficiency in terms of computation and communication performance on popular mobile devices. In addition, a VSN-based smart ride application is developed to demonstrate the functionality and practical usefulness of S-Aframe.
41 citations
Cites methods from "Middleware for social computing: a ..."
...In CSS, we mainly consider three types of semanticbased models for VSN applications developed on S-Aframe: (i) application specific service; (ii) context information; and (iii) user-specified information. a: APPLICATION SPECIFIC SERVICE OF...
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04 May 2015
TL;DR: A novel application-oriented service collaboration (ASCM) model is introduced which can automatically match multiple users with multiple mobile crowd sensing tasks in VSNs in an efficient manner and a context information management model is proposed that aims to enable the mobile community sensing applications to autonomously match appropriate service and information with different users (requesters and participants) in crowdsensing.
Abstract: Driving is an integral part of our everyday lives, and the average driving time of people globally is increasing to 84 minutes everyday, which is a time when people are uniquely vulnerable. A number of research works have identified that mobile crowd sensing in vehicular social networks (VSNs) can be effectively used for many purposes and bring huge economic benefits, e.g., safety improvement and traffic management. This paper presents our effort that toward context-aware mobile crowd sensing in VSNs. First, we introduce a novel application-oriented service collaboration (ASCM) model which can automatically match multiple users with multiple mobile crowd sensing tasks in VSNs in an efficient manner. After that, for users' dynamic contexts of VSNs, we proposes a context information management model, that aims to enable the mobile crowd sensing applications to autonomously match appropriate service and information with different users (requesters and participants) in crowdsensing.
12 citations
Cites background or methods from "Middleware for social computing: a ..."
...…of the service requester (i.e., crowdsensing requester) is compared to that of the service provider (i.e., crowdsensing participant), and their similarity is measured using traditional service matching by simple string or key-word matching, e.g., location based, identities based methods [20]....
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...Compared to other alternative approaches over dynamic networks [20, 22], the proposed CSS has the following advantages....
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07 Apr 2014
TL;DR: It is shown that a city's glocality, measured with social media data, effectively signals the city's economic well-being.
Abstract: Urban resources are allocated according to socio-economic indicators, and rapid urbanization in developing countries calls for updating those indicators in a timely fashion. The prohibitive costs of census data collection make that very difficult. To avoid allocating resources upon outdated indicators, one could partly update or complement them using digital data. It has been shown that it is possible to use social media in developed countries (mainly UK and USA) for such a purpose. Here we show that this is the case for Brazil too. We analyze a random sample of a microblogging service popular in that country and accurately predict the GDPs of 45 Brazilian cities. To make these predictions, we exploit the sociological concept of glocality, which says that economically successful cities tend to be involved in interactions that are both local and global at the same time. We indeed show that a city's glocality, measured with social media data, effectively signals the city's economic well-being.
6 citations
References
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21 Mar 2011
TL;DR: A heuristic based framework that captures the tradeoff between the accuracy of estimating multiple context metrics and the overhead incurred in acquiring the necessary sensor data stream and a multi-context search heuristic algorithm that computes the optimal set of sensors contributing to the multi- context determination as well as the associated parameters of the sensing tasks.
Abstract: In pervasive computing environments, understanding the context of an entity is essential for adapting the application behavior to changing situations. In our view, context is a high-level representation of a user or entity's state and can capture location, activities, social relationships, capabilities, etc. Inherently, however, these high-level context metrics are difficult to capture using uni-modal sensors only, and must therefore be inferred with the help of multi-modal sensors. However a key challenge in supporting context-aware pervasive computing environments, is how to determine in an energy-efficient manner multiple (potentially competing) high-level context metrics simultaneously using low-level sensor data streams about the environment and the entities present therein. In this paper, we first highlight the intricacies of determining multiple context metrics as compared to a single context, and then develop a novel framework and practical implementation for this problem. The proposed framework captures the tradeoff between the accuracy of estimating multiple context metrics and the overhead incurred in acquiring the necessary sensor data stream. In particular, we develop a multi-context search heuristic algorithm that computes the optimal set of sensors contributing to the multi-context determination as well as the associated parameters of the sensing tasks. Our goal is to satisfy the application requirements for a specified accuracy at a minimum cost. We compare the performance of our heuristic based framework with a brute-forced approach for multi-context determination. Experimental results with SunSPOT sensors demonstrate the potential impact of the proposed framework.
39 citations
"Middleware for social computing: a ..." refers background in this paper
...[40, 41]), recognising the impact that such task has on lo-...
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20 Jun 2011
TL;DR: This paper proposes E-Shadow, a distributed mobile phone-based local social networking system that allows users to perform dynamic and layered information publishing, making use of interpersonal relevance, and believes it can lead to a more tightly-knit temporary community in one's physical vicinity.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose E-Shadow, a distributed mobile phone-based local social networking system. E-Shadow has two main components: (1) Local profiles. They enable EShadow users to record and share their names, interests, and other information with fine-grained privacy controls. (2) Mobile phone based local social interaction tools. E-Shadow provides mobile phone software that enables rich social interactions. The software maps proximate users' local profiles to their human owners and enables user communication and content sharing. We have designed and implemented E-Shadow on mobile phones. In our E-Shadow system, we allow users to perform dynamic and layered information publishing, making use of interpersonal relevance. Our system also provides a mechanism to help users perform direction-driven localization of an E-Shadow and match it with its owner. Experiments on real world Windows Mobile phones and large-scale simulations show that our system disseminates information efficiently and helps receivers find the direction of a specific E-Shadow with accuracy. We believe our E-Shadow concept and system can lead to a more tightly-knit temporary community in one's physical vicinity.
35 citations
"Middleware for social computing: a ..." refers background in this paper
..., [3, 44, 48]): rather than locking data in the hand of a service provider, users retain ownership of the data and control who to share it with....
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21 Mar 2011
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a novel architecture geared for privacy-sensitive applications where personal information is shared among users and decisions are made based on given optimization criteria, and propose efficient yet provably private solutions, and conduct an extensive experimental analysis that attests to the practicality of the attained privacy features.
Abstract: The scope of mobile phones has skyrocketed in recent years to such an extent that smartphone sales are expected to surpass those of PCs by the end of 2011. Equipped with relatively powerful processors and fairly large memory and storage capabilities, smartphones can accommodate increasingly complex interactive applications. As a result, the growing amount of sensitive information shared by smartphone users raises serious privacy concerns and motivates the need for appropriate privacy-preserving mechanisms. In this paper, we present a novel architecture geared for privacy-sensitive applications where personal information is shared among users and decisions are made based on given optimization criteria. Specifically, we focus on two application scenarios: (i) privacy-preserving interest sharing, i.e., discovering shared interests without leaking users' private information, and (ii) private scheduling, i.e., determining common availabilities and location preferences that minimize associate costs, without exposing any sensitive information. We propose efficient yet provably-private solutions, and conduct an extensive experimental analysis that attests to the practicality of the attained privacy features.
31 citations
30 Nov 2009
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a framework grounded in utility theory where users dynamically control the level of disclosure about their information and propose a distributed solution that, given a user's background knowledge, maximizes the utility of the information being disclosed to information recipients while meeting the privacy requirements of users.
Abstract: Middleware for pervasive spaces has to meet conflicting requirements. It has to both maximize the utility of the information exposed and ensure that this information does not violate users' privacy. In order to resolve these conflicts, we propose a framework grounded in utility theory where users dynamically control the level of disclosure about their information. We begin by providing appropriate definitions of privacy and utility for the type of applications that would support collaborative work in an office environment---current definitions of privacy and anonymity do not apply in this context. We propose a distributed solution that, given a user's background knowledge, maximizes the utility of the information being disclosed to information recipients while meeting the privacy requirements of users. We implement our solution in the context of a real pervasive space middleware and provide experiments that demonstrate its behaviour.
27 citations
04 Oct 2010
TL;DR: This work revised the overall system architecture, API, and implementation of StarTrack to operate on collections of tracks rather than individual tracks, delay query execution, and permit caching of query results, resulting in considerable performance gains.
Abstract: StarTrack was the first service designed to manage tracks of GPS location coordinates obtained from mobile devices and to facilitate the construction of track-based applications. Our early attempts to build practical applications on StarTrack revealed substantial efficiency and scalability problems, including frequent client-server roundtrips, unnecessary data transfers, costly similarity comparisons involving thousands of tracks, and poor fault-tolerance. To remedy these limitations, we revised the overall system architecture, API, and implementation. The API was extended to operate on collections of tracks rather than individual tracks, delay query execution, and permit caching of query results. New data structures, namely track trees, were introduced to speed the common operation of searching for similar tracks. Map matching algorithms were adopted to convert each track into a more compact and canonical sequence of road segments. And the underlying track database was partitioned and replicated among multiple servers. Altogether, these changes not only simplified the construction of track-based applications, which we confirmed by building applications using our new API, but also resulted in considerable performance gains. Measurements of similarity queries, for example, show two to three orders of magnitude improvement in query times.
26 citations
"Middleware for social computing: a ..." refers background in this paper
...in [18], for example, novel APIs, data structures, and al-...
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