There is growing interest in the development of context-aware ubiquitous systems which can support seamless computing for mobile users in integrated, heterogeneous environments built from a variety of network technologies, sensors and computing devices. In addition, there is growing interest in context-aware applications that intelligently support user tasks by acting autonomously on behalf of users in these integrated, ubiquitous environments. However, there is also increasing recognition of challenges associated with context-awareness, including barriers associated with scalability and usability and novel software engineering problems.
This workshop focuses on context models that provide abstractions to foster context reuse and ease of programming, and support development of scalable, robust, reliable and usable context-aware applications. The workshop also responds to the growing popularity of ontology principles and methods in ubiquitous computing systems, and examines the role that these can play in context modelling and reasoning. In addition, the workshop addresses novel approaches to context management.The workshop goals are to foster exchange of experiences and collaboration among researchers, to identify future challenges in context modelling, reasoning and management, and to discuss potential avenues for integration of the current disparate approaches and creation of standards.
The workshop attracted high quality papers from 10 countries. The submitted full papers were refereed by the workshop's international program committee and 20 papers were selected for the presentation at the workshop. Papers were accepted based on both their quality and their match with the workshop goals. The accepted papers are assembled into four panel sessions which address applications of ontologies in context modelling and reasoning, hybrid context models which integrate ontology approaches with other methods of context modelling, and a variety of context modelling and management issues.
We would like to thank the members of the program committee for their hard work in creating a very high quality program while working within an extremely tight schedule. We also thank Ted McFadden for managing the paper submission process and creating the workshop website at http://pace.dstc.edu.au/UbiComp2004_ContextWorkshop.html
September 2004
Jadwiga Indulska
David De Roure