Context Sensitive Personalization Utilizing User Profiles: Standardization Work at European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)

As communication systems and technology become more advanced and complex, it will be increasingly important to focus on users’ individual needs. Personalization can range from simple cosmetic factors such as customised ring tones to the complex tailoring of the presentation of a shopping web site to a user's personal interests, or highly personalized eHealth systems including sensor networks. Personalization and effective user profile management will be necessary to ensure the uptake and success of new services and devices and it is therefore important to focus on the users’ requirements in this area and define solutions that meet these requirements. This paper describes an architectural framework for user profile management and explains a solution for context sensitive automatic activation of user profiles.