Special issue on ubiquitous mobile information and collaboration systems (UMICS)

Abstract

Over the last few years, most business processes have changed on various dimensions (e.g., flexibility, interconnectivity, coordination style, autonomy) due to market conditions, organizational models, and usage scenarios of information systems. Frequently, information is relocated within a geographically distributed system according to rules that are only seldom defined as a well codified business process. This creates need for a software infrastructure that enables ubiquitous mobile information and collaboration systems (UMICS). The anywhere/any time/any means paradigm is becoming the major challenge in conceiving, designing, and releasing the next-generation information systems. New technologies, such as wireless local area networks (WLAN) and third-generation (3G) mobile phones, are offering the infrastructure to conceive information systems as ubiquitous information systems, that is, systems that are accessible from anywhere, at any time, and with any device. Ubiquity is not yet another buzzword pushed by emerging technologies, but is mainly a means to support new business models and encourage new ways of working. This new wave of UMICS will exploit the knowledge developed and deployed for conventional information systems, but will also need new concepts, models, methodologies, and supporting technologies to fully exploit the potentials of the enabling infrastructure and to be ready for the challenge. Moreover, people need to move across organizational boundaries and collaborate with others within an organization, as well as between organizations. The ability to query the company’s distributed knowledge base and to cooperate with co-workers is still a requirement, but mobility brings new access scenarios and higher complexity. Therefore, some issues also arise about how to enable users to retain their ability to cooperate while displaced in different points of the enterprise, the role of context and location in determining cooperation, and the support for ad hoc cooperation in situations where the fixed network infrastructure is absent or cannot be used. The eight papers presented in this special issue represent an overview of the 2nd International Workshop on Ubiquitous Mobile Information and Collaboration Systems 2004 (UMICS), co-located with the 16th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE), 7–8 June 2004 in Riga, Latvia. The contributions cover four areas: data and context management, coordination and control, application frameworks, and process modeling. Each of the papers offers valuable lessons on various aspects of UMICS. Furthermore, they provide insights into an emerging community of research topics, with scientists from various backgrounds working on them. We believe that the authors have succeeded in this pioneering work and we would like to thank them for submitting their work to UMICS 2004 and the extended versions to this special issue. We also would like to thank all reviewers who helped select and refine the papers and the editorial team at Springer for being an excellent partner. We hope to see you at future UMICS workshops! L. Baresi (&) AE M. Matera Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy E-mail: baresi@elet.polimi.it E-mail: matera@elet.polimi.it