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Overview |
Mobile social computing leverages the success of
Internet-based social networking and the features
of newly-developed programmable smart phones
to provide a large spectrum of geo-socially aware
applications that will fundamentally change the way we
interact with each other in the near future. Such
applications can help people stay in touch anytime,
anywhere, provide real-time recommendations about
people, places, and events, or deliver customized
mobile content function of the user's geo-social context.
As part of the broader SmartCampus
initiative, this research focuses on system
and networking support for programming mobile social
computing applications. Specifically, we design and
implement middleware and services that simplify the
efficient development of these applications.
Our prototypes are
evaluated on top of the SmartCampus test-bed, which consists
of several hundred users carrying smart phones.
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Research Directions |
::: Middleware Platforms
With research showing that people are increasingly willing to
share their social information and location in return for
services, the time is ripe to start developing mobile social
computing applications (MSCAs). What is still missing, however,
is a software platform to provide development and deployment
support for coping with large mobile user communities. To
address this issue, we built MobiSoC, a middleware that enables
MSCA development and provides a common platform for capturing,
managing, and sharing the social state of mobile user
communities. This state is composed of people profiles, place
profiles, people-to-people affinities, and people-to-places
affinities. The social state evolves continuously over time as
new user profiles, social ties, place-related information, or
events are created. Additionally, the consistent view of the
social state provided by MobiSoC enables algorithms that
discover previously unknown emergent geo-social patterns,
which can further augment this state. To improve the
responsiveness and energy efficiency on mobile devices, each
MSCA is split into an MSCA service that runs on top of MobiSoC
on regular servers and a thin mobile client that interacts with
the service and MobiSoC over the Internet. We developed several
prototype applications on top of this middleware. MobiSoC's
software distribution is publicly available here.
::: Geo-Social Services and
Algorithms
The ability to capture both social and location information
of large user communities open the path toward geo-social
recommendation services. We designed and evaluated GPI, an
algorithm for automatic identification of previously unknown
social groups and group-place associations using community
mobility traces. GPI is based on repeated co-location patterns.
This algorithm can be incorporated in services that recommend
newly identified social groups or places to enhance the
social experience of the users. For example, new students can
learn about popular hangouts on campus. We also built a
mobile, location-enhanced, social matching service. This
service computes geo-social scores based on users' profiles and
their mobility traces. Matches are delivered according to user
preferences and privacy constraints.
This service can be accessed from a mobile application running
on smart phones as well as from a Facebook application
available
here.
::: Ubiquitous Social Computing
Infrastructure for Education
We are conducting an interdisciplinary
design studio to foster problem seeking and problem solving for
computing sciences students (i.e., students majoring in
computing science, information systems, and information
technologies). Students enrolled in this studio design
ubiquitous social computing applications that facilitate
interactions between colleagues, friends, and even the entire
campus community. We chose ubiquitous social computing as
the topic of our studio because ubiquitous technologies blend
the digital, physical, and social spaces into a single
socio-computing learning space, which can fundamentally improve
students' creativity. A key characteristic of our studio is the
use of interactive plasma displays and mobile technologies.
The displays are installed across the campus
to continuously exchange information between students enrolled
in the studio and the rest of the university community. So far,
we have developed a system to post student projects on these
displays and receive community feedback. Future work plans to
leverage our mobile social computing technologies to enable
casual interactions between students enrolled in this studio.
Furthermore, mobile technologies can be used to identify the
users in front of
the public displays and show personalized content, thus
enhancing the chances of receiving feedback from community
members.
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People |
Faculty:
Students:
Collaborators:
Graduated Students:
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Funding |
»
Using GeoTemporal Social Matching to Support Community.
NSF, 2005-2009.
»
SmartCampus: A Wireless Mobile Community System with
People-To-People-To-Places Services. NSF, 2005-2009.
»
Fostering Creativity in Ubiquitous Social Computing through Casual
and Formal Interactions in Interdisciplinary Design Studios.
NSF, 2007-2008.
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Publications |
»
MobiSoC: A Middleware for Mobile Social
Computing Applications
Ankur Gupta, Achir Kalra, Daniel Boston, and Cristian
Borcea
ACM/Springer Mobile Networks and Applications (MONET)
Journal, Spring 2009.
»
The MobiSoC Middleware for Mobile Social Computing: Challenges,
Design, and Early Experiences
Cristian Borcea, Ankur Gupta, Achir Kalra, Quentin Jones, and
Liviu Iftode
Proceedings of the
1st International Conference on Mobile Wireless Middleware,
Operating Systems, and Applications (Mobilware 2008),
February 2008.
»
Automatic Identification of Informal Social Groups and Places
for Geo-Social Recommendations
Ankur Gupta, Sanil Paul, Quentin Jones, and Cristian Borcea
International Journal of Mobile Network Design and
Innovation, December 2007.
»
A Quantitative Analysis of Power Consumption for Location-Aware
Applications on Smart Phones
Arjun Anand, Constantine Manikopoulos, Quentin Jones, and
Cristian Borcea
Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE International Symposium
on Industrial Electronics (ISIE 2007), June 2007.
»
An Interactive Poster System to Solicit Casual Design
Feedback
Theodore Hall, Wassim Jabi, Katia Passerini, Cristian Borcea,
and Quentin Jones
Proceedings of the
ACADIA 2008 Conference of the Association for Computer Aided
Design in Architecture, October 2008.
»
Exporting the Studio Model of Learning: Teaming Architecture
with Computer Science
Wassim Jabi, Theodore Hall, Katia Passerini, Cristian Borcea,
and Quentin Jones Proceedings of the
eCAADe 2008
Conference on Education and Research in Computing Aided
Architectural Design in Europe, September 2008.
»
Early Experiences with Interdisciplinary Design
Studios
Wassim Jabi, Cristian Borcea, Theodore Hall, and Katia
Passerini
Proceedings of the
NSF Creative IT Workshop, January 2008.
»
Ubiquitous Social Computing Technologies to Foster Design
Thinking and Creativity
Wassim Jabi, Cristian Borcea, Quentin Jones, and Katia
Passerini
Proceedings of the
Creation and Cognition 2007 Workshop on Tools in Support of
Creative Collaboration, June 2007.
»
SmartCampus-Studio: Fostering Creativity and Design Thinking
with Ubiquitous Social Computing Technologies
Wassim Jabi, Cristian Borcea, Quentin Jones, and Katia
Passerini Proceedings of the
ACM CHI 2007 Workshop on Supporting Design Studio Culture in
HCI, April 2007.
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Related Projects |
»CenceMe
»Urban
Sensing
»Reality
Mining
»Micro-Blog
»MyExperience
»Active
Campus
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