Patrocina
  • Omepet*. Marketing 2.0
  • Telefónica
  • Satec
Organiza
  • W3C España
  • Fundación CTIC
  • Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza
Colabora
  • ATI: Asociación de Técnicos de Informática
Celebrado en
  • CEDI

Conclusions

Ver también en Castellano

Conclusions Report on the MWeb’07 Conference

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Zaragoza, 12-13 September 2007

The I Conference on Mobile Web (MWeb’07), which took place within the Spanish Conference on Computer Science (CEDI) this year, has served to put different concerns regarding research, development and innovation on the table in the field of the web in mobile devices.

The main aim of this conference has been to satisfy the need of adapting applications and services not only to the features of mobile devices but also to the distinctive challenges of mobile user, which are different from those of the so-called desktop devices. Apart from the obvious need of making the most of markup languages, multimedia formats, screen dimensions and the distinctive mechanisms of data input and output, it is necessary to take into account the specific needs of the mobile user. Whereas a person who interacts with a desktop computer (with a big screen, a keyboard and a mouse) sits down more or less comfortably to surf the web, mobile users usually access the web with the intention of obtaining specific information as fast and comfortably as possible.

The use of Semantic Web technologies, in which the Delivery Context (including the User Context, to be understood as the specific situation and needs of the user in a specific moment) is managed, have proved to be specially interesting in order to facilitate this kind of interaction, typical of the mobile user. A good example of this, which was presented during the Conference, has been the prototype for the completion of web forms in mobile devices, which allow to manage the information introduced by users in the forms and remember data of previous forms in order to automatically fill certain fields that request the same information which was previously introduced in other web pages.

Also, there are certain tools which encourage the use of the web through mobile devices. On the one hand, there are certain commercial initiatives such as that of dotMobi, which help users publishing web resources so that they can be used in most of mobile devices (being based on the core patterns defined in W3C Mobile Web Best Practices), in the form of tools for the creation and publishing of web sites through assistants. On the other, several tools are being developed, such as TAW (Fundación CTIC), which allow to validate web resources according to the above-mentioned Best Practices in order to guarantee their accessibility from most of the mobile devices in the market.

One of the aspects which was highlighted in the conference is the need of applying new marketing strategies within companies in order to fit the new context of mobility, and at the same time, offering appealing contents (suitable for the terminal) and participative environments (for instance, through the annotation of the information offered by proximity services in behalf of the user).

Another relevant aspect which was mentioned in the Conference was the use of the Mobile Web as a mechanism for approaching e-Government to the citizens through mobile versions of the web sites available for desktop devices. This is the case of the Council of Zaragoza’s web site and its mobile version, which was created through the Merkur tool. A different approach complementing the latter is offered by MyMobileWeb plattform, which allows creating new specific web applications for the mobility channel without being based on a desktop web version.

A significant share of the papers presented at the Conference proposed a particular interpretation of the “Mobile Web” concept, through the development of applications on the client implemented on the device operating system or on a virtual machine resident in the latter, making use of web technologies such as web services (SOAP, REST, etc.), presentation through vectorial interfaces (SVG), information interchange through SMS/MMS messaging or through wireless technologies such as Bluetooth in proximity services, and so on. Although this kind of contributions, which encourage the access to applications and services from mobile devices, are very interesting, future editions will only be focused on the use of web browsers as software platforms on the client.

Besides, interesting approaches came out, such as the importance of network infrastructures deployment to encourage the use of mobile devices. For instance, wireless networks (WiFi, WiMax) deployed in a metropolitan area for complementing existing cellular networks (GPRS, UMTS, HSPA).

The participation of Rotan Hanrahan, Chair of the Device Description Working Group within W3C Mobile Web Initiative (and member of other W3C Working Groups) proved that the contribution of standardization bodies will lead the development of the mobile web in the next years. Mobile Web Best Practices, Applications for the Mobile Web, Compound Document Formats, Multimodal Interaction or the already mentioned Device Description Group will develop recommendations which will serve as the basis for the services and applications deployment infrastructures on the Mobile Web, not only on the server side but also on the client (web browser).

Finally, it is necessary to highlight the active participation of the attendants in the two panels, in which even ordinary users had the chance to express their concerns. User’s lack of confidence regarding security in the web or the high data rates suffered by most of mobile users were pointed out as the greatest enemies of data services deployment in general and of the Mobile Web, in particular, in Spain.