Christopher Winstanley

Repurposing Web Analytics to Support the IoT

Internet of Things analytics engines are complex to use and often optimized for a single domain or limited to proprietary data. A prototype system shows that existing Web analytics technologies can successfully be repurposed for IoT applications including sensor monitoring and user engagement tracking.

Tourism communities and social ties: the role of online and offline tourist social networks in building social capital and sustainable practice

ABSTRACT Mobile connectivity enables the adoption of new ways to connect with social networks which are changing how we might, and could, seek support. In the tourism domain we increasingly blend online and offline presence to engage with social networks in the spatial location, at a distance and across time. This paper explores the forms of community that exist in physical tourism contexts, contexts not previously analysed through a community lens, and explores how mobile technology is creating connections within and beyond existing social networks. It examines how sustainable tourism can be enhanced by mobile connectivity through new space–time practices and using ephemeral interpersonal relationships to harness niche groups to create bottom-up social systems interested in sharing experiences, ideas and resources. Special attention is given to the concept of gelling socialities which proposes a less ridged network structure, and to the need to understand the increasingly liquid social dynamics of mobile social interactions. The paper adds to the theories surrounding community, social ties and tourisms value to society. It draws on data from in-depth interviews undertaken while designing and testing a collaborative travel app. It contributes to growing research into the new technologies increasingly available for sustainable tourism marketing and implementation.

I Love My Display: Combatting Display Blindness with Emotional Attachment

There is evidence that the public are learning to either ignore or actively avoid public displays. While most research has focused on addressing this issue by increasing the perceived value of the content shown we have been inspired by the strong bind between mobile phones and their users to explore an alternative approach, i.e. to encourage viewers to form emotional attachments with displays. In this paper we report on our early studies that explore this idea in a real-world testbed.

Demo: An Ecosystem for Open Display Networks

While traditional displays networks are typically closed systems, researchers are now beginning to explore the notion of open display networks in which content can be obtained from a wide range of sources. Open display networks have very different properties to closed networks as they need to deal with multiple management domains and conflicting content and scheduling requirements from different stakeholders. A key challenge is to provide an appropriate software infrastructure to support openness at all stages (e.g. content distribution, schedule creation, media playback). In this work we demonstrate a suite of software components that together provide a comprehensive eco-system for open pervasive display networks.

PAMPA in the wild: a real-life evaluation of a lightweight ad-hoc broadcasting family

PAMPA is a family of broadcast algorithms for adhoc and wireless networks that are both lightweight and robust. PAMPA variants have shown promising performance results in simulations. Simulations can however be misleading, as they often poorly reflect reality. This paper seeks to further our understanding of PAMPA beyond simulations, and reports on the first ever characterisation of the PAMPA family on a real deployment. We use this opportunity to reflect on our findings and lessons learnt when moving from simulations to actual experiments.