Presenting information in a relevant format is critical to the success of location-based services. Information services targeted at both local and tourist populations must be able to seamlessly present information that is relevant to the users’ location and context. These systems must consider a number of factors in determining the appropriate presentation format for each user.
Mobility creates several challenges:
Presentation of foreign data in the semantics that the user can relate to.
Presentation of user preferences in terminology that the local system can understand in order to provide maximum benefit to the user.
Interoperability of security and privacy policies.
Discovery of equivalent services in foreign locations.
User level transaction models.
This requirement puts the burden on the service provider to query the user preferences and determine if the service can provide the data in the appropriate semantics. There are further requirements on the user devices to understand the data stream from the services to determine if the service provided is suitable for the user (e.g. language, metrics and iconography).
The need for a common understanding of the user’s preferences/profile by the serving applications is paramount. Concerns arise when you consider the variety of tagging languages and formats could lead to complete non-function of the position dependant services to the user. This creates a need for creating inter-exchange formats and schema that can address such issues. In addition to the above, preferences and personalization related to the mode of data transfer (encrypted/secure/authenticated) are also necessary.
There is a significant need to understand how to make policies that are user defined operate in a foreign environment. The local system needs to understand the needs for authentication and encryption that are defined by the user and not necessarily those dictated by the service.
There may be a plethora of similar services that are available in an area, however the user/device has to determine which service is the best fit. In order to create such an environment there has to be inter-exchange of data that enables service discovery. Schema needs to be defined for this inter-exchange.
Tourism is a big revenue generation space. The use of position dependant data will, at some point result in transactions between the user, information provider and service provider. The methods used to capture the transactions and resolve any payments need to be explored and defined.
The minimum set of data definition is needed for:
Points of interest
Hotels/accommodation
Transportation
Rental services
Restaurants
Merchants
Arts and entertainment
Tourist services/agencies
Hospitals and first aid
User preferences and profiles
Solutions are needed for:
Definition of encryption and authentication mechanisms
Service discovery data and schemes
Transaction and payment models
Yojak Vasa
Ericsson Wireless Internet – Geoportal
yojak@geoportal.net
December 16, 1999