Instant Knowledge: Secure Autonomic Business Collaboration

The University of Strathclyde work packages will develop the technology platform for the core of the interpersonal networking system. This consists of techniques for extracting communications metadata, an ontology for describing and sharing this information throughout the system, protocols for establishing the network and sharing contact information, a method of pro-actively achieving this growth, and an examination into the usability of the system. Communications Metadata: This task will develop techniques to extract and describe useful context information from ongoing mobile communications, in order to retrieve implied social links between communicants. This communications metadata must be presented in a manner which allows it to be understood by several other system components. Therefore, an ontology specification will be a key outcome of this area of work. The challenges here are in determining how much information can be found within communications sessions, defining that which may be useful for building and extending the interpersonal network, and creating a syntax for describing this information which will scale to future communications systems. Network Implementation: Building and growing the interpersonal network is a fundamental component of the system described in this proposal. The work in this task will develop protocols which enable the exchange of contact information among users of the system, enabling establishment and expansion of the number of connections in the network. As part of this work, the research must define the meaning of having such a link between two people, and determine how to describe their relationship. This work will tie in with the Security and Privacy work in the broader project, ensuring that data privacy issues are addressed appropriately. Once these methods of establishing a network are defined, the task will examine techniques to pro-actively apply the protocols to build the network without user effort. This will require the application of communications metadata as described above. User Control and Usability: The interpersonal network system described in this project is designed to be largely automatic in its operation, requiring no direct user input. However, it is vital that the user feels in control of the information being communicated between devices. Automation is only useful so long as it is actually helpful; all intelligent assistant systems require human input to guide them in the correct direction. For example, a user may want to specify a relationship to a contact, remove a link from the network, or restrict the flow of personal information. This task will examine the human interface issues raised by this new system. Exposing the network information to the user in a usable manner is vital to the success of the system, and the research will determine how the user should be able to control the interpersonal network. One key output of the work here will be a practical demonstration system, which can be used as a basis for further research as well as assist in potential product development.