BluePlanner

BluePlanner is a java application that exploits opportunistic communication technologies for enabling a seamless content distribution in mobile environments. By leveraging on Bluetooth as the communication medium, and by relying on the physical proximity of users for exchanging data, BluePlanner enables a selective sharing of information which is tightly coupled with users’ interests and preferences. During Mobile HCI, BluePlanner will be used to facilitate the social interactions among attendees, peers and conference organizers. The objective of this study is to evaluate the use, the user experience and the acceptance of opportunistic communication technologies in a real conference environment (MobileHCI 2008). In order to participate in the study, you should fill in the questionnaire below. It concerns your professional and social interests.

The application is composed by 3 distinct functionalities:

1. Business Card Exchanger: this functionality is in charge of diffusing users business cards, starting from the profile inserted into the application. In particular, to profiles are associated meta-information specifying the preferences of users. Whenever a match is found between any 2 users meeting, their BusinessCard is exchanged.
2. Content Explorer: this functionality refers to the possibility of pushing content into the network. Content is injected into the U-Hopper network, and then diffused epidemically on the basis of preferences expressed by users
3. Shared Calendar: users have the possibility to configure their personalized calendar, including events that are then shared with other users. Similarly to the other use cases, the sharing is based on users profile, and events are diffused only when a sufficient match is found between 2 user profiles

Before mobileHCI, participating users will be asked to express their interests among predefined list of categories through the BluePlanner website. This will include conference-related topics (e.g., research areas) as well as social interests (e.g., food, music). As a result, users will receive a version of the BluePlanner software already pre-configured with their profile, and specifically customized for their personal handheld device.

During mobileHCI, the users will carry their mobile device and receive content depending on the settings inserted into the application. As an example, users can (i) create a Business Card and share it over the BluePlanner network, (ii) organize and share their personalized agenda (iii) create new social or business events to be shared with other attendees. From the organizers perspective, BluePlanner will provide the possibility to transparently interact with participants, advertising upcoming events, commercial information, or even asking attendees a feedback on the conference itself. This will be enabled through a content distribution point which will be used for allowing organizers to easily inject/gather content into/from the opportunistic content distribution network.

After mobileHCI, the evaluation of the users experience will begin. This will consist of several parts. On the one hand, we will evaluate users interactions in terms of data diffusion process. With this respect we will evaluate the circulation of contents as a consequence of users’ participation and expressed interests. At the same time, we will analyze how the injected content can affect users’ behavior during the event. Finally, we will use questionnaires for assessing the ultimate users’ perception of the proposed technologies.

You can find the detailed instructionss for joining the Blueplanner mobile experience from this link [Instructions]

Thank you for filling in the questionnaire. You will soon receive a version of the BluePlanner software pre-configured with your profile and customized for your personal handheld device.

In order to speed up the installation process, we have prepared a default version of the BluePlanner software, which runs on most popular platforms. In order to become part of the this mobile experience, you simply need to download the application on you mobile device… and you are part of the event!

Click on the links below to download the software:

• NokiaSeries60E3
• Nokia/Series40E3
• Sony-Ericsson/JavaPlatform8