Enhancing Public Services through Contextual Adaptations in a Three-Tier Architecture

1. Towards Ubiquitous Government Services through Adaptations with Context and Views in a Three-Tier Architecture

2. Introduction • Increasing demand for the extension of enterprise services to anytime and anywhere access • Mobile devices have significantly inferior capabilities than those of desktop computers over the wired Internet • Context become important • User environment of operations • Reduce user input • Any information that can be used to characterize the situation of entities that are considered relevant to the interaction between a user and an application • Big difference in software design • Different user requirements under different context • Systematic context-based service adaptation • Three-tier views methodology

3. Extended Notion of Context

4. u-Government services as pioneer? • Motivated by our study in ubiquitous tourist services • Largest number of possible users (citizens and visitors) • Better governmental services help increase the productivity of the general public • Access to various citizens’ contexts are relatively easy • More trusted as compared with other private services. • Local authorities (such as the city government) can host these services because they have the most resources or the best knowledge about local contexts • After gathering the experiences • government coordinate the access of citizens’ context • legislation and enforcing legal civil usage.

5. System Architecture End users on Multi - platform Devices User - Side Web / WAP Access Server - Side User Interface Views SMS XSLT Processor Context Detection Adapter External Interface Middleware Web Front - end Subsystem Web Check Prepare Prepare Verify & Deliver & Container Begin Prepara - End Parts Info Quotation Extra Info Confirm Install tion AND Check Prepare Prepare Verify & Deliver & Begin Prepara - End Parts Info Quotation Extra Info Confirm Install Service Preparation System Integrator tion Context and View AND Check Prepare Prepare Verify & Deliver & Order Begin Prepara - End Assemble Install System Updated Parts Info Parts Info Quotation Extra Info Confirm Install Service Preparation Begin Missing End System Integrator tion Enquiry System Software Testing Maintenance AND Order Updated Parts Info Assemble Install System Begin Service Preparation Missing End System Integrator System Software Testing Enquiry Subsystem Order Assemble Install System Updated Parts Info Begin Missing End Enquiry System Software Testing <<session bean>> XSLT Server Stylesheets Process <<session bean>> Process Specification Editor Process Process Views View Specfication <<session bean>> Repository Application Context Constraint Subsystem Specification Editor Solver View / Context Platforms Platforms PDA PDA WAP WAP SMS SMS Views Views Specifications User User Simplified screen layout Simplified screen layout WML translation WML translation SMS message SMS message presentation presentation Low resolution graphics Low resolution graphics Highly reduced screen Highly reduced screen Interface Interface <<entity bean>> in XML Panning and Zooming Panning and Zooming View View View and EJB Omit some fields Omit some fields Mandatory fields only Mandatory fields only Highly summarized Highly summarized Data View Data View Data View Platforms Platforms PDA PDA WAP WAP SMS SMS and mandatory and mandatory Summarized information Summarized information Highly summarized Highly summarized Stylesheet Editor Views Views information as information as information information message content message content Simplified screen layout Simplified screen layout WML translation WML translation SMS message SMS message User User Simplified workflow steps and procedures Simplified workflow steps and procedures presentation presentation SMS dialogue SMS dialogue Workflow Workflow Container Low resolution graphics Low resolution graphics Highly reduced screen Highly reduced screen Interface Interface Platforms Platforms PDA PDA WAP WAP SMS SMS presentation presentation View View Panning and Zooming Panning and Zooming View View Views Views Omit some fields Omit some fields Mandatory fields only Mandatory fields only Highly summarized Highly summarized Data View Data View Simplified screen layout Simplified screen layout WML translation WML translation SMS message SMS message User User and mandatory and mandatory Summarized information Summarized information Highly summarized Highly summarized presentation presentation Low resolution graphics Low resolution graphics Highly reduced screen Highly reduced screen Interface Interface Backend information as information as Consistency information information Panning and Zooming Panning and Zooming View View message content message content Simplified workflow steps and procedures Simplified workflow steps and procedures Omit some fields Omit some fields Mandatory fields only Mandatory fields only SMS dialogue SMS dialogue Highly summarized Highly summarized Workflow Workflow Data View Data View Database Checker presentation presentation and mandatory and mandatory Summarized information Summarized information Highly summarized Highly summarized View View information as information as information information message content message content Workflow Workflow Simplified workflow steps and procedures Simplified workflow steps and procedures SMS dialogue SMS dialogue presentation presentation View View Data Views

6. A Meta-model for Context-aware Adaptation

7. Requirements elicitationmethodology • Determine the different target groups of users • Estimate the typical contexts of these groups (especially those that possibly affect the system’s interactions) • For each of these contexts, enlist the requirements specific for the context. • For each service, see how different contexts (from step 2) may impact on its interactions and determine the required adaptation • For each context-aware feature, detail the desired context-aware capabilities. • Make sure that the context-aware capabilities match and satisfy all the requirements elicited from step 3. Otherwise, it would mean that some required context-aware feature are missing and we should re-iterate from step 5 to handle those unaddressed requirements.

8. View formulation methodology • Design process views that capture typical sets of context-aware features for adaptation. • Design data views for each of the data sources based on the requirements of the process views and context-aware capabilities. • Design user interface views based on platform dependent restrictions. • Validate view consistency (process algebra and automata theory) – see TSMC Part A, 33(6):725-741, 2003

9. Appointment service & Views for different adaptations Enter Service Receive Service Authentication / Request Reply Refresh [ valid service allocation ] Select Options Confirm Service Show Details Options [ rejected ] Enter Counter- [ passive mode ] options [ confirmed ] [ counter-offer mode ] Select Request Mode (a) Original service process (b) Process view 1 (typical PDA browser) Enter Service Receive Service Authentication / Request Reply Refresh [service not allocated ] [service not allocated ] [ valid service allocation ] Select Options Confirm Service Show Details Options [ rejected ] Enter Counter- [ passive mode ] options [ confirmed ] [ counter-offer mode ] Select Request Enter Mode Constraints [ constraint mode ] Enter Service Receive Service Request & Options Reply [service not allocated ] [ reject ] Confirm Service Details [ confirmed ] (c) Process view 2 (typical for WAP) (d) Process view 3 (typical for SMS) Process view is a structurally correct subset of a process definition

10. User Interface Views for WAP users for PDA users

11. User Interface View Implementation User Inputs XML Document Object Presentation Object Activity XML Processor Activity Activity Screen / Form User Interface View Workflow View XSL Style Sheet XML Schemas

12. Data View vs. Complete Schema - Security and privacy - Exchange efficiency

13. Some notes on the effect of context • Concentrate on the difference of the requirements for the ubiquitous users from those under standard browsers • Identify similar or identical tasks to maximize reuse • customize them with views instead of rewriting them • Complete detailed service process is too complicated for a mobile environment • Simplification of the process • Reordering of work steps • Task delegation to other personal / software agent • Avoid error and security problems • Difficult to tell if a user can tolerate a complex process • user’s operating environment (e.g., lighting!) • Preferences and mood 

14. Conclusion • Even for simple and common services, adapting them toward a ubiquitous one is far more complex than previously expected • Notion of extended context • General experience in building context-aware services is new • A meta-model and methodology • Requirements elicitation for ubiquitous service design • Three-tier view-based implementation of adaptations • Just adapting UI is often inadequate => process view • Contexts select the appropriate view for user execution • View based approach facilitates systematic planning and deployment of such ubiquitous services in phases

15. Further and Ongoing work • Ubiquitous requirement conflicts and implications • Ubiquitous collaboration and agent-based computing • MAIS architecture implementation • Application in ubiquitous tourist assistance system

16. Q&A Thank you! Contact: dicksonchiu@ieee.org