Context-Aware User Preferences in Systems for Pervasive Computing and Social Networking

Abstract. Context-aware user preferences play an important role in adapting the behaviour of pervasive systems to satisfy the individual user in different contexts. Most of the pervasive system prototypes that have been developed, incorporate context-aware user preferences, capturing them in an appropriate form and using them to personalize the behaviour of the prototype. However, the rapid rise in use of social networking systems has created a new possibility – that of combining this type of system with pervasive systems to create a new type of system with the benefits of both. The challenge lies in finding how to integrate these two different paradigms in a seamless way to create such a system. This introduces new challenges for the context-dependent user preferences for both individuals and communities. This paper describes briefly some of the ideas, especially as they relate to context-aware user preferences