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L08. Context-Aware & Computational Contexts

Sat, 08/06/2011 - 3:56pm — monica
Date/Time: 
Mon, 09/26/2011 - 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Resource(s): 
R1. Raper et al., "Applications of Location-Based Services: A Selected Review" (Skim)
R2. Wakabayashi, "Japanese Farms Look to the 'Cloud'"
R3. Brech et al., "Smarter Cities Series: Understanding the IBM Approach to Efficient Buildings"(Optional)
R4. Economist, "The Connected Car"
R5. Bardram et al., "Experiences from Real-world Deployment of Context-Aware Technologies in a Hospital Environment" (Optional)
R6. Cherbakov et al., "Impact of Service Orientation at the Business Level" (Selections)
R7. Alimendinger & Lombreglia, "Four Strategies for the Age of Smart Services" (Selections)

"Location" is the most obvious attribute that might be used to make a service "context-aware," but not the only one. Context has been defined as "any information that characterizes a situation related to the interactions between users, applications, and the surrounding environment." The environment consists of places, people, and things, and for each entity there are four categories of context information: location, identity, status (or activity), and time. From the perspective of service design, the key principle is that information replaces interaction. There is no need to ask a customer to supply location, time, or other contextual information that the provider has obtained or inferred from another service or sensor. Likewise, there is no value in providing information to the customer that isn’t relevant to his location or context.


Computational services are “pure” information services that are typically carried out entirely by automated services without any human involvement or physical actions. These services are designed using principles and techniques of “document engineering,” “web services,” or “service-oriented architecture.” These design perspectives view the service system abstractly as a set of cooperating services that interact by exchanging information through well-defined interfaces that specify the inputs and outputs of each service.