Service Fusion in Mobile Contexts

Abstract

Abstract. Service provision for mobile users poses several challenges for those managing enterprise information systems. Some of these are ubiquitous, for example, privacy and security. Others give rise to integration and interoperability issues. The agent paradigm, though offering potential in fixed networked scenarios, has not been seriously considered as a mechanism for incorporating mobile clients, primarily to their computational intractability on mobile devices. However, recent developments in agent and mobile computing technologies -both from a hardware and software perspective, have rendered the mobile phone a viable platform for agents. One implication of this is that agents now offer a viable platform for service delivery to mobile users. This chapter reflects on some of the pertinent issues necessary for this, including Agent Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE). The discussion is illuminated with a systematic description of EasyLife -a framework that harnesses the agent paradigm to construct and deliver services to mobile users.

Retail in the Digital City

“…Many of these factors, for example, limited hardware capabilities, restricted user interface, and intermittent network coverage are perhaps becoming less salient as the technology matures. One strategy to counteract these restrictions is to adopt some level of intelligence into delivering effective mobile commerce services; specifically, the notion of agency has proven to be particularly attractive in realising services that are adaptive, personalised and context-aware (Shen et al, 2010). Furthermore agents have been expensively harnessed in standard e-commerce solutions (Lin, 2008;Fasli, 2007;Chen et al, 2008;Kowalczyk et al, 2002).…”