Smart Space-based Ridesharing Service in e-Tourism Application for Karelia Region Accessibility - Ontology-based Approach and Implementation

The paper describes a ridesharing service proposed for improving tourism accessibility in Russian Karelia region. The ridesharing service has been developed using Smart-M3 information sharing platform as a smart space infrastructure, which increases the service scalability, stability and speed, as well as reduces the network load. The presented service is the first implementation of ridesharing concept based on the SmartM3 platform. The paper describes technical studies carried out to develop the prototype of ridesharing service as well as empirical studies. An effective matching algorithm, which finds correspondences between driver paths and tourist start and end points, and two heuristics significantly reducing path matching time, have been presented. Besides, data analysis of online questionnaire developed to better cognize whether prospective customers will accept ridesharing services as an alternate mode of transportation is discussed.