BeFriend: A Context-Aware Ad-hoc Social Networking Platform

Abstract

Ad-hoc social networks, focused on managing user social relationships in a novel fashion based on establishment of temporary social connections among users with mutual interests and/or needs, provide an innovative medium for upgrading existing, as well as developing new social relationships. This paper describes the BeFriend, a context-aware ad-hoc social networking platform based on Facebook and Google+ social graphs. The BeFriend platform is for mobile users equipped with a smartphone—after installing and activating the BeFriend client, they are able to receive push notifications when a certain rule is triggered (e.g. it is Friday evening, Ewan and Luke are drinking beer in a bar and one of their Facebook/Google+ friends passes nearby). Personal agents within the BeFriend platform provide autonomous decision-making in the platform, decrease the need for user input and enable automated social discovery of new community members. The proof of-concept BeFriend platform presented in this paper is available in form of BeFriend application for users possessing Android-based smartphones.