UbiqUM 2008: theories and applications of ubiquitous user modeling

In today's information world, small personal computerized devices, such as PDAs, smart phones and other smart appliances, become widely available and essential tools in many situations. This ongoing penetration of computers into everyday life leads to so-called ubiquitous environments, where computational power and networking capabilities are available (and used) everywhere. The strive of providing personal services to users made user modeling capability an essential part of any ubiquitous application. Ubiquitous user modeling describes ongoing modeling and exploitation of user behavior with a variety of systems that share their user models. Currently, issues relating to ubiquitous user modeling are gaining more and more attention from research groups representing the user modeling, the human-computer interaction, and the ubiquitous computing research communities. The goal of this workshop is to bring together academic and industrial researchers from these communities to discuss the most innovative approaches to ubiquitous user modeling, to enhance the exchange of ideas and concepts, to determine the veins the research should proceed, and to go one step further towards personalization in ubiquitous computing.