This presentation describes MobJeX (Mobile Java Objects), an adaptive Java based application framework currently being developed within the School of Computer Science and Information Technology at RMIT. MobJeX forms a central part of Project 1.2 - Frameworks for the Development of Next Generation Internet Applications, within the Australian Telecommunications Collaborative Research Centre (ATcrc). MobJeX uses a combination of pre-processing and runtime support to provide application adaptation in response to changing environmental conditions, especially via transparent object mobility between heterogeneous clients such as workstations, PDAs and smartphones. Potential applications exist in mission critical areas such as emergency services response as well as online entertainment and virtual community applications. « Short abstract

In most P2P business models, in which users purchase the media, it is necessary to securely identify the user in order to facilitate payment. This paper presents a technique for allowing the widespread sharing of certain media formats including music using a method that keeps track of media possession and other marketing information, but in a way that does not require user identification. For the user, the main attraction of this scheme is that their identity is not a requirement, usage of reduced-quality media within this system is free and that extended media search is facilitated as an attraction to remain within the system. The content creators and distributors are compensated by this system by them having access to potentially large-scale actual usage and music trading statistics. The preliminary system design presented here, can cleanly coexist with a full-quality music purchase business model, also described briefly. « Short abstract

While mapping or spatial information was formally paper based, it is now often stored digitally and much of it can be purchased over the web. In digital format, it is no longer restricted to a particular scale or date of publication and there is a tendency for consumers to assume the data is always true and correct. So, how can a data consumer tell whether a spatial dataset is really fit for their use? This research looks to find ways to communicate data quality to the consumer via the web using User-Centred Design as the research tool. In this seminar, I will present the context of this research and the planned research design. This is a research project in the Department of Geomatics funded by the CRC for Spatial Information. « Short abstract

Emerging information and communication technologies are about to change and affect how we interact and coordinate with each other. These technologies will probably affect children in various situations even tough children are already emerging as a rather frequent and experienced user population. In this seminar, I will present the context and content of my stay at the Department of Information Systems. By conducting an empirical study, we have investigated the social interaction phenomena that unfold between children and their parents. We used the concept of cultural probes and contextual interviews to investigate the intimate acts between children and parents in three families. Our findings show that the intimate act between children and parents share a number of similarities with other types of intimate relations such as strong-tie intimacy. However, we also identified several issues of intimacy unique to the special relation between children and their parents. These unique acts of intimacy propose extra challenges when designing technologies for mediated intimacy in families. My stay at University of Melbourne will focus on a continuation of the Intergenerational Games Project. Here I will work on finishing the development of at distributed "Hide and Seek" game that can be played by children and their grandparents. The intension is to evaluate the interaction aspects and phenomena that the system support or (potentially) fail to support. This part of my work is still very open-ended, thus I hope the seminar will have characteristics of an open-ended discussion rather than a one-way speech. « Short abstract