Preface

IBM Journal of Research and Development, Sep-Nov 2004 by Yeh, James, Gopalakrishnan, Ponani S, Kuse, Kazushi

China Research Laboratory

The IBM China Research Laboratory in Beijing conducts research in a wide range of areas, including business process integration and management, information and knowledge management, digital media and embedded systems, future client systems and user interactions, pervasive computing and on-demand infrastructure. In this journal issue, we present five papers from three of these areas. These papers cover a wide scope ranging from the exploration of future device scenarios which address projected market needs and positions IBM for the next generation of volume wireless messaging, to the pursuit of excellence in services through actual customer engagements. These topics are not only interesting in themselves but are also particularly relevant to emerging markets.

In the area of pervasive computing, we look at the infrastructure capabilities needed to support various pervasive computing and wireless applications. Wireless and mobile devices can provide both device identity and location information through various short-range and long-range location positioning methods. Location-based or location-aware services have been widely proposed and discussed. In the paper by Chen et al., a detailed description is given for an information infrastructure which is needed to support location-aware services. This location operating reference model can manage a vast amount of location information, provide modeling capability, and support querying and notification. Critical components of this infrastructure would include a location server, a mobile object database, and a spatial subscription and publication facility. A number of technologies can be used for determination of indoor locations, depending on the application scenarios, location precision required, and cost implications. Among several options, Wireless LAN (WLAN) is by far the most widely deployed infrastructure. The paper by Xiang et al. suggests a novel way of determining the position of a WLAN-enabled device down to a precision of two meters, while the WLAN access range can be tens of meters or more. Such solutions will be of interest to retailers who would like to push information to shoppers at specific locations.

For much wider ranges of communication, the wireless communication network is expanding beyond the current second-generation (2G) technology. Short Messaging Services (SMS), extremely popular in Asia and Europe, will be extended into Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS). The paper by Shen et al. proposes a scheme for adding interactive capabilities to MMS by embedding extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) into the MMS presentation language to support good user experience and workflow. This provides an alternative mechanism for extended applications with asynchronous messaging between clients and servers as well as among peers.

In the area of future devices, we believe that there is no single device which can provide all of the functions, convenience (e.g., various form factors), and cost containment in the near future, while each device continues to become more powerful through embedded communication capabilities and software. This provides room for virtual devices which could be "dynamically" assembled by various intelligent information appliances to augment the total function and user experience. The paper by Fu et al. illustrates how such virtual devices can be created.

We have been looking for a novel method which can significantly enhance service capabilities for transforming business through information technology (IT). The paper by Zhu et al. illustrates in detail a model-driven business process integration approach which can significantly bridge the gap between business initiatives and IT implementation. In addition, the authors describe the insights developed through a customer engagement. This paper also provides a role model for describing the services-oriented research which will be a new frontier for researchers.

India Research Laboratory

The IBM India Research Laboratory in New Delhi pursues significant research initiatives in electronic commerce, information management, software lifecycle, autonomie computing, technologies for human-computer interaction, and solutions and services. Selected papers in this issue include one set of papers describing the uses of machine learning and information retrieval techniques for applications such as marketing research, checking consistency of Web sites, and analyzing biological documents. A second set of papers deals with issues that are of significant importance to information technology access and use in India.

In the first category, the paper by Agrawal, Basak, et al. describes a novel method for conducting marketing research online. Traditional marketing research, conducted through telephone interviews, by intercepting physical shoppers in retail stores or malls, and through focus groups, is expensive, slow, and prone to inaccuracies. There are an increasing number of online shoppers which can be used to gather market intelligence rapidly and cost-effectively. The authors discuss techniques such as active learning, matched control and experimental groups, and implicit and explicit experiments used to gather market intelligence online. These techniques can provide substantial value to online commerce Web sites.