An infrastructure for Mobile Information Systems based on a Fragmented Object Model

Global information management systems based on the vision of the "docuverse" -- such as the WorldWide Web (WWW) -- show that on-line access to vast amounts of distributed information is possible not only for the expert, but also for the end user. At the same time, the availability of affordable mid- and longrange wireless data communication services, based, e.g., on cellular phone technology, has put the vision of ubiquitous mobile information access within the reach of viable projects. It is now an interesting challenge to combine both concepts into a system model granting everyone ubiquitous access to the global information repository. However, problems such as low bandwidth and limited resources make this a non-trivial task. This paper describes MIS/0, an experimental mobile information system based on wireless data communication which has been developed at the Computer Graphics Center during 1994. MIS/0 and its underlying concepts address the above mentioned problem areas by introd..