Jakob E. Bardram

The java context awareness framework (JCAF) – a service infrastructure and programming framework for context-aware applications

Context-awareness is a key concept in ubiquitous computing. But to avoid developing dedicated context-awareness sub-systems for specific application areas there is a need for more generic programming frameworks. Such frameworks can help the programmer develop and deploy context-aware applications faster. This paper describes the Java Context-Awareness Framework – JCAF, which is a Java-based context-awareness infrastructure and programming API for creating context-aware computer applications. The paper presents the design goals of JCAF, its runtime architecture, and its programming model. The paper presents some applications of using JCAF in three different applications and discusses lessons learned from using JCAF.

Applications of context-aware computing in hospital work: examples and design principles

Context-awareness is a key concept in ubiquitous computing, which sometimes seems to be a technology looking for a purpose. In this paper we report on the application of context-aware computing for medical work in hospitals, which has appeared to be a strong case for applying context-aware computing. We present the design of a context-aware pill container and a context-aware hospital bed, both of which reacts and adapts according to what is happening in their context. The applications have been evaluated in a number of workshop with clinicians and patients. Based on this empirical work of designing, developing, and evaluating context-aware clinical applications, the paper outlines some key design principles for a context-awareness framework, supporting the development and deployment of context-aware clinical computer applications.

Mobility Work: The Spatial Dimension of Collaboration at a Hospital

We posit the concept of Mobility Work to describe efforts of moving about people and things as part of accomplishing tasks. Mobility work can be seen as a spatial parallel to the concept of articulation work proposed by the sociologist Anselm Strauss. Articulation work describes efforts of coordination necessary in cooperative work, but focuses, we argue, mainly on the temporal aspects of cooperative work. As a supplement, the concept of mobility work focuses on the spatial aspects of cooperative work. Whereas actors seek to diminish the amount of articulation work needed in collaboration by constructing Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs), actors minimise mobility work by constructing Standard Operation Configurations (SOCs). We apply the concept of mobility work to the ethnography of hospital work, and argue that mobility arises because of the need to get access to people, places, knowledge and/or resources. To accomplish their work, actors have to make the right configuration of these four aspects emerge.

Plans as situated action: an activity theory approach to workflow systems

Within the community of CSCW the notion and nature of workflow systems as prescriptions of human work has been debated and criticised. Based on the work of Suchman (1987) the notion of situated action has often been viewed as opposed to planning work. Plans, however, do play an essential role in realising work. Based on experiences from designing a computer system that supports the collaboration within a hospital, this paper discusses how plans themselves are made out of situated action, and in return are realised in situ. Thus, work can be characterised as situated planning. This understanding is backed up by Activity Theory, which emphasises the connection between plans and the contextual conditions for realising these plans in actual work.

Designing for the dynamics of cooperative work activities

CSCW seems to have a persistent problem of understanding the nature of “cooperative work”. This paper argues that this problem is a direct result of not looking at the dynamic aspects of work – i.e. that cooperative work is not one thing, but different things at different times and in different places. Based on Activity Theory the paper gives a conceptual frame for understanding the dynamics of collaborative work activities, and argues that the design of computer support should view cooperative breakdowns not as a problem but as an important resource in design. These arguments are based on empirical studies of healthcare work and the design of a computer support for planning and scheduling operations and other activities within a hospital.

Temporal Coordination –On Time and Coordination of CollaborativeActivities at a Surgical Department

An activity is inseparably bound up with time, and interdependentcooperative activities thus need to be coordinated in time. The nature oftime is therefore an ever-present issue in the design of computer systemssupporting coordination. Based on Activity Theory this paper defines theconcept of Temporal Coordination. Then, based on in-depth studies of thesocio-temporal aspects of coordinating cooperative work at hospitals, thepaper explores this notion of temporal coordination. This analysis identifiessome of the highly intertwined temporal problems, constraints, interests,and conflicts, which arise when work subject to temporal limits is to becoordinated. The paper then introduces the PATIENT SCHEDULER, which isa prototype designed during this project to illustrate how aspects oftemporal coordination can be supported by computer technology.

AwareMedia: a shared interactive display supporting social, temporal, and spatial awareness in surgery

Several CSCW studies have shown that coordination of work in hospitals is particular challenging, and that clinicians put much effort into maintaining mutual awareness on the flow of work. Despite these apparent challenges, very little work has been done to design technology which helps people coordinate highly cooperative work in such a critical setting. In this paper we propose a novel way of supporting coordination in this hectic and time-critical environment. AwareMedia is a system which promotes social, spatial, and temporal awareness in combination with a shared messaging system. AwareMedia runs on large interactive displays situated around the hospital, and it is designed especially to support coordination at an operation ward. We present the design, implementation, and deployment of AwareMedia and based on preliminary data from our on-going deployment, we discuss how AwareMedia is working in-situ.

A web of coordinative artifacts: collaborative work at a hospital ward

This paper reports from a field study of a hospital ward and discusses how people achieve coordination through the use of a wide range of interrelated non-digital artifacts, like whiteboards, work schedules, examination sheets, care records, post-it notes etc. These artifacts have multiple roles and functions which in combination facilitate location awareness, continuous coordination, cooperative planning and status overview. We described how actors achieve coordination by using different aspects of these artifacts: their material qualities, the structure they provide as templates and the signs inscribed upon them that are only meaningful to knowledgeable actors. We finally discuss the implication for the design of CSCW tools from the study.

Context-Aware User Authentication – Supporting Proximity-Based Login in Pervasive Computing

This paper explores computer security in pervasive computing with focus on user authentication. We present the concept of Proximity-Based User Authentication, as a usability-wise ideal for UbiComp systems. We present a context-aware user authentication protocol, which (1) uses a JavaCard for identification and cryptographic calculations, (2) uses a context-awareness system for verifying the user’s location, and (3) implements a security fall-back strategy. We analyze the security of this protocol and discuss the tradeoff between usability and security. We also present our current implementation of the protocol and discuss future work.

Pervasive Computing Support for Hospitals: An overview of the Activity-Based Computing Project

The activity-based computing project researched pervasive computing support for clinical hospital work. Such technologies have potential for supporting the mobile, collaborative, and disruptive use of heterogeneous embedded devices in a hospital