Context awareness in information logistics

Information logistics aims to optimize information supply with regard to various dimensions according to users’ demands. One of the dimensions which significantly affect information demands and their optimized fulfillment is the situation of entities or, in other words, the dimension of context. The pieces of information that are relevant to a user and the optimal way of supplying them are frequently determined by contextual factors. In addition, mobile and ubiquitous computing environments more and more complement or even replace traditional desktop computing. These environments are characterized by rapid context changes, in particular concerning the available communication media. Information logistic applications thus have to flexibly adapt to context in order to ensure an optimized information supply. A consideration of context also enables information logistic applications to become increasingly unobtrusive by reducing the amount of explicit user input they require. As a consequence, users are allowed to focus on their actual tasks rather than having to concern themselves with issues of how to interact with software applications. Therefore, the quality of information supply and the usability of information logistic applications can significantly be improved by considering the dimension of context. The ability of software systems to adapt their behaviour and the provision of information and services to context is called context awareness. Contextual information, however, has not been taken into account in information logistics so far. The goal of this thesis is to make information logistic applications context-aware. For this purpose they are added a new component called the Context Component. This component deals with all aspects related to the representation, gathering, management, and supply of context. By this means information logistic applications are enabled to perform optimizations with regard to the dimension of context and thus to improve the quality of information supply and the degree to which users’ demands are met. This thesis presents concepts, models, and a reference architecture for the Context Component of information logistic applications. It incorporates a context model that serves as a basis for the consistent and efficient processing of context. Furthermore, techniques for a sophisticated gathering of context data from heterogeneous sensors, the augmentation, filtering, management, and supply of these data as well as their association with quality characteristics are presented. The reference architecture for the Context Component provides the various stakeholders of information logistic applications with a comprehensive guideline covering all aspects of the component’s life cycle. It supports the fulfillment of both the functional and the non-functional requirements made onto the Context Component and as a result ensures that the component software is of high quality.