1. GRUPPO TELECOM ITALIA
BlogTalk 2010
Galway, August 27th
A Context-Aware
Mobile Social Web
Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation
Laurent-Walter Goix

2. Agenda
► It’s all about Context!
► Mobile Social Web enablers at TI
► Experience & lessons learned
► Challenges
Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation
Laurent-Walter Goix

3. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Mobile social networking trend
►Online Social Networks
►Mobile Networks
►Mobile Devices
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 3

4. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Location-Based Applications: How many?
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 4

5. It’s all about Context!
Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation
Laurent-Walter Goix

6. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
“Context”: a pillar of Mobile Social WHO:User profile
Context is any information that can be used to
characterize the state of an entity WHERE:
An entity is a person, place, or object relevant to the Geo-localized
user-application interaction [Dey, 2001]
(x2,y2,z2)
Useful parameters for context (x1,y1,z1)
Identity & user profile BY WHAT:
►
WHEN: Device based
► service profile
Time based
► space: location, movement, direction
HOW:
► Time: time, date,… Activity based
► Environment: temperature, place type,
popularity, loudness, …
► Nearby users or resources
► Resource availability: device, battery, display,
BY WHICH
network, bandwidth
NETWORK
► Presence: willingness, availability
► Physiological data: mood, blood pressure,
heartrate,…
► Activity: working, meeting, walking, in transport
Context Awareness = adapts to user needs in any given situation/context.
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 6

7. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Context Awareness: new roles for the telco
Create/acquire (& certificate) Elaborate context information to Provide controlled access to
context data based on network, define a high-level “service- “Context Data” & “service-usage
device, sensor & user usage context” context” to users and applications
information.
Context Data Context Analysis Service integration
Telco exclusive parameters
Algorithms Ontologies
Mobility support
user pref.
Service &
Comm.
Usage Group
Location Privacy Awareness
3rd party context data provider Recommendation
Reasoning
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 7

8. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
•Where is she? Is she moving?
•Tell me when she arrives in Galway /
Context Aware Applications
at an airport / at a monument
•Is she with friends? in a busy place?
•Which is her current device screen
•What is the user doing? size?
•What was the last service used? •How much battery has she left?
•Can i call her? / Which number is best for
sending her an SMS? Context Aware Context Aware
•Has she any meeting upcoming?
application application
•How old is she?
•Who are her friends? •Which network is she using? Has she
enough bandwidth?
Proprietary XML RPC
SOAP REST
REST
Telco Enablers
Device
sensors Location,
Presence, …
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 8

9. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
•Where is she? Is she moving?
•Tell me when she arrives in Galway /
Context Aware Applications
at an airport / at a monument
•Is she with friends? in a busy place?
•Which is her current device screen
•What is the user doing? size?
•What was the last service used? •How much battery has she left?
•Can i call her? / Which number is best for
sending her an SMS? Context Aware Context Aware
•Has she any meeting upcoming?
application application
•How old is she?
•Who are her friends? •Which network is she using? Has she
Context API enough bandwidth?
Proprietary Context Aware XML RPC
Platform
SOAP REST
REST
Telco Enablers
Device
sensors Location,
Presence, …
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 9

10. Mobile Social Web enablers at TI
Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation
Laurent-Walter Goix

11. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
A Platform for User Context Management
Applications
ContextML ContextML
CA Platform
CB API Integrated Places &
API Location Provider
Telco
Context
Context Context
Context Social Network
Enablers
Local
Local
Provider
Provider
Directory
Directory
Subscription &
Subscription &
Notification
Notification API Provider +
Context
Context CB API External
Broker
Broker
Providers
CB_API
CB_API
Module
Module Context cache API User Proximity &
Provider
Ctxt Social
Source
Networks
API Advanced
Context data: cell, bt, wf,
deviceInfo, deviceSettings, Context History User Profile
deviceStatus, position,
movement, …
A platform for enabling context aware telecommunication services [CAPS 2007]
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 11

12. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Uniform context representation: ContextML
Referred to an entity (user,
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
►
<contextML xsi:schemaLocation="http://ContextML/1.6 http://url/ContextML-1.6.xsd">
<ctxEls> device, etc.) with type and ID
►Information is organized in
<ctxEl>
“scopes” (position in the
<contextProvider id="LP" v="1.2.14"/>
example)
<entity id=“wasvel" type="username"/>
<scope>position</scope>
►Has a validity (Timestamp
<timestamp>2010-07-20T12:30:38+01:00</timestamp>
<expires>2010-07-20T12:31:37+01:00</expires>
<dataPart>
and Expires)
<par n="latitude">45.11024</par> ►Meta-language: simple and
<par n="longitude">7.66681</par>
extensible data structures
<par n="accuracy">541</par>
<par n="locMode">CELLDB</par>
(par, parS, parA)
</dataPart>
</ctxEl>
</ctxEls>
</contextML>
►Representation is used in several EU projects (OPUCE, MUSIC, CCAST,…)
►Used as basis for OMA NGSI Context format (more semantics added)
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 12

13. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Teamlife: Context-based Social Media community platform
Teamlife is inspired from Web2.0 portals (Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, …) for creating
communities, with a strong focus on mobile production & consumption of content (e.g. SMS,
MMS, email, mobile web, iPhone).
Context Tagging: user status updates or media is automatically tagged with context information
(where, with whom, in which type of place, etc) using triple tags. Such metadata is used to filter
searched content in different ambiences (mobile, home, …)
User Community
User Content +Context Data
(On-Line)
Digital Photoframe
User Content
(Off-Line) CB API
User User
User Content CA platform Content
Context Data PC
(Off-Line)
Home-
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation Network 13

14. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
RecS: Context-based recommendation on-the-go
► UGC is overloading users with (useless) information
► Contextualized recommendation of items (POIs, events, etc) to
mobile users based on category/position/range
► Mobile users can vote & comment items and attach media
► Recommendation given through dedicated algorithms (e.g.
collaborative filtering, trust)
► Reason for recommendation can be added (price, ambience, etc)
► Group recommendation (when identifying nearby colleagues,
friends…)
Example iPhone app
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 14

15. Experience & lessons learned
Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation
Laurent-Walter Goix

16. BlogTalk 2010 Public Administration events Public deployments
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Exploitation
Virgilio Portal (since Nov ‘09)
Venice Carnival (Feb ’08) BiciStaffetta Bike Tour (’08 & ’09)
Jpeggy (since Apr ‘09)
Lucca Comics Festival (Nov ‘09) Notte Rosa – Rimini (Jul ‘08)
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 16

17. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Lessons learned
► Web2.0 explosion have shown how much users are willing to express
themselves, post and comment anything
► New actors are being interested outside the IT world as they realize the
value of the Mobile Social Web
► Commercial Use / Advertising (e.g. Brands)
► Public Use / Events (e.g. Public Administrations, Shopping malls, Tour Operators)
► Internal/restricted use (e.g. Enterprises)
► Local & micro-communities can gather users with similar interests and
generate value, but users need good reasons for:
► Joining
► Be active
► Stay
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 17

18. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Open & link to the world
► “Why should I use your community”?
► Users consider a value in cross-linking with popular social networks by propagating actions
► Photo & videos, Status updates, Check-ins, Reviews
► The more the better
► Share buttons also an advantage
► But they also need an added value
► Location/Context, Text/Media processing, Additional content
► Users like open communities
► Also open to “anonymous” contributions (consider moderation)
► Regulation can be strict for registering
► Maximize (mobile) communication channels (both input and output)
► Mobile devices have very different capabilities and support for standards
► Not all have smartphones! SMS/MMS are more popular than web on cellphones
► Mobile users know that their phone number is being sent limits misuse
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 18

19. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Use the appropriate context
► Location is THE added value of mobile social media that users want
► BUT…
► Location accuracy vary and may be wrong
► Media time may not match current location
► Users highly dislike bad positioning, especially when shared
► Check context accuracy & trust: depending on your application needs,
consider
► Blurring context
► Omitting/Hiding context (may be suspicious)
► Analyzing text/content to get hints about context
► Semanticizing context (e.g. “home”, “office”)
► Suggesting places (check-in)
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 19

20. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Promote the best content
► Good content is king – emperor on mobile
► Users have little time & space to watch content from mobile
► Community content often overloads users
► Extra content is considered a key value
► Mobile devices have small displays and may have limited capabilities
► Select & rank “best” content (context & content analysis)
► Filter content through personalized recommendations
► Consider partner with premium content providers
► Not just Google…
► Consider local & specialized providers (media guides, reviews, events, etc)
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 20

21. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Make users feel comfortable
► Allow for content moderation (strict / post)
► Text/media processing can help
► …but strict moderation is expensive and limits Real-Time scenarios
► Users refrain from giving access to external accounts
► Use best possible authentication, authorization & privacy mechanisms
► Give users control over target networks for each action
► Users want to control which context to share (e.g. location, presence)
► Per application
► Per user
► Incentive users in participating
► Live public display
► Contests / Rewards
► Animation team can help
► Open to suggestions (customer feedback 2.0)
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 21

22. Challenges
Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation
Laurent-Walter Goix

23. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Conclusions
► Mobile Social Communities: Context is THE added-value
► Opportunity for operators to act as central authority for context & content
management (certification, privacy)
► No killer app, tons of Social context/media/recommendation mash-ups
► Limitation is fantasy!
► Lessons learned:
► Make users feel comfortable
► Open & link to the world…but users may not use it
► Quality vs quantity: share good context & content
► Standardization & open source can limit fragmentation: semantics can help!
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 23

24. BlogTalk 2010
A Context-Aware Mobile Social Web
Some research challenges
► Reliable and trusted Context Certification authority
► (Controlled) context data exchange among mobile handsets
► Effective content filtering to protect users from information overload
► Centralized vs. distributed storage & processing of context & content
Users should be aware of
what they are sharing and to whom
and control it at any time!
Laurent-Walter Goix, Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation 24

25. Thank you!
► Laurent-Walter GOIX
► Strategy & Innovation, Research & Trends, Future Internet
► laurentwalter.goix@telecomitalia.it
► @wasvel
Telecom Italia / Strategy & Innovation
Laurent-Walter Goix