Using screenplays as a source of context data

Context datasets are essential not only to design and evaluate context-aware systems but also to help identify important problems. For practical and ethical reasons, collecting real-life context data is not always feasible. In this paper, we investigate the possibility to use context data extracted from screenplays in certain context-aware applications. In the absence of real context data, screenplays are inexpensive, rich and well-structured substitutes. However, narrative art and techniques naturally restrict the range of applications in which they can be used. Some television series have been showing for over ten years. We argue that this substantial source of context data could benefit the community in certain applications. As a case study, we compare a context dataset extracted from a specific screenplay with one of the major publicly available real context datasets collected on mobile phones. Results in social relationship characterization are discussed.