https://doi.org/10.48009/2_iis_2008_523-529 MOBILE COMPUTING WITH WEB 2.0: CURRENT STATE-OF-THE-ART, ISSUES AND CHALLENGES Hiren Nagar, Illinois State University, [email protected] Billy B. L. Lim, Illinois State University, [email protected] ABSTRACT: devices. It promises to transcend beyond the limitations The mobile computing with web 2.0 is considered by of the previous generation of mobile devices, enhancing many as the next big wave riding in the field of mobile and enriching the overall experience of using the web computing. Many industry leaders in the web, telecom, through these tiny devices. and cell phone manufacturing arena are taking active interest in exploiting the power of web 2.0 and applying Mobile web 2.0 is about leveraging the power of the it on the mobile platform to bring to the users a set of web, integrating the web services and their features on new and innovative services. With the advanced mobile the mobile platform, and providing the users the rich web services, there are challenges for the design and experience they enjoy on desktop applications. Mobile implementation of the user interfaces for these services. web 2.0 focuses on harnessing the strength and Further, issues such as the lack of open access from capabilities of the applications supported by web 2.0 telecom carriers and lack of open standards for and extends them to the mobile platform, making it application development represent major hindrances to more powerful and usable. The concept of mobile 2.0 mobile web 2.0 becoming a true success in the mobile does not limit itself to only a traditional handheld computing world. This paper describes essential device. In the future, mobile 2.0 devices would be so characteristics of mobile web 2.0, mobile web 2.0 tiny that they could be implanted in our clothing, applications, future possibilities and challenges of physical environment, accessories, and body parts, mobile computing with Web 2.0. enabling us to instantaneously connect to other people laden with such devices, interact with the web Keywords: Mobile web 2.0, Web 2.0, Mobile 2.0. subconsciously and perform other functions now only possible through desktops. This coincides with the W3C INTRODUCTION vision for the web—“Universal Web Access: The Web Anywhere, for Everyone, at Anytime, on Everything” Web 2.0, the next generation web is all about making [1]. the web as platform, harnessing collective intelligence, lightweight and meshup programming models, ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MOBILE WEB 2.0 providing rich user experiences, and approaching application development differently. With all these The concept of mobile web 2.0 and its applications are characteristics, web 2.0 is impacting various possible because of the underlying structure of mobile applications that have been available in traditional web devices and the essential characteristics and guiding such as personal websites, sharing and accessing data, principles that serve as the building blocks on which connecting with other people over the web, etc. It is also mobile web 2.0 relies. having impact on the capabilities of different platforms/devices such as personal computers, mobile Openness: This is one of the most essential characteristics in making mobile web 2.0 a reality. devices and other handheld devices that access such Mobile web 2.0 emphasizes on open standards, open web applications. Specifically, the present mobile source development, and open access. This is why new devices with their limited infrastructure restrict the generation web applications are being built with users’ interaction and limit their ability to interact with XHTML (W3C standard) to avoid cross-browser issues the web applications in a full-fledged manner. and provide consistent browsing across all the platforms and browsers. However, even though the major cell The improvement and enrichment to mobile computing phone vendors support XHTML, there are still and its underlying structure to access the advanced inconsistencies in many existing cell phones, unsettling features of the web is being referred to as mobile web the browsing experience of the user. dotMobi is a 2.0 or simply mobile 2.0. Mobile web 2.0, with myriad company formed by ICANN (Internet Corporation for of possibilities to offer, is changing the way people Assigned Names and Numbers) dedicated to manage interact with the web, pushing their limits up to levels mobile devices and to also serve as the official registry that they could only imagine in the past using mobile for .mobi, a top level domain for mobile web VOL IX, No. 2, 2008 523 Issues in Information Systems Mobile Computing With Web 2.0: Current State-Of-The-Art, Issues And Challenges applications. W3C Mobile Web initiative efforts are Google Mobile adapted content), centers around also focused on standardizing mobile web to deal with creating a small personalized tourist guide with cross-platform and cross-browser issues [2, 19]. carefully chosen options to develop a better understanding of contextual elements and browser The development of open source community on mobile environmental elements in mobile devices. It illustrates web will be another important factor contributing to that the appropriate consideration of cell phone specific mobile web 2.0. The distribution of open-source contextual elements is central to the designing, applications will enable the users to have access to a developing and deploying of mobile web applications wide range of mobile web applications without any with regards to their business and user goals. licensing fee. It will also see a significant contribution from the users/developers further modifying and Affordable pricing: With required support and developing new applications, engendering an overall infrastructure in place, the extent to which the high-end growth in the use of mobile web and population of its mobile web services will be accepted is still determined developers and users [2, 12, 19]. by their pricing. The users should be able to use network at very affordable price to be able to access the Lack of open access is seen as a hindrance to the mobile web content and the services. If broadband widespread growth of mobile web 2.0. The mobile access is still offered at high prices on the mobile service providers are controlling the access of mobile platform, then YouTube, Flickr, Google maps, and other users by enclosing them in the walled gardens and similar services requiring high rate of data transfer will limiting their options. They are simply restricting the remain rarely used on the mobile devices, limiting the users to an exclusive set of information services and capabilities of users using mobile web 2.0 [19]. limiting their open accesses to the Internet content, e- commerce and the other Internet based services. With Innovative business opportunities: The advent of such a limited access to the Internet, the users will not advanced and innovative mobile web 2.0 applications be able to enjoy the services offered by mobile web 2.0 will make it possible for more business opportunities to and its power will never be exploited. So for mobile enter the market and attract even more mobile web web 2.0 to become a reality, the players in this market related services such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Entertainment need to open up to this concept and embrace the new download zones and access spots, podcasting, wave of mobile computing. This openness from the cellcasting, blogcasting to cell phones, streaming video service providers is closer to reality in European call to TV, moblogging, etc. There are solutions being countries but there is still a long way to go for the US proposed using QR (Quick Response) codes, image and some Asian countries [2, 5, 12, 19]. recognition, and augmented reality by the market players for easy deployment of the mobile services that Context of use: Designing mobile web applications is will improve the usability experience of these services much more challenging than designing their desktop [19]. counterparts because of various factors: small display, screen attributes, constrained processing power, and the (More) user choices: Similar to web 2.0, there needs to limited keys [22]. Further, as given in [9], “The be an abundance of choices available to the users of convergence of functions and constant addition of new mobile web 2.0 for it to flourish. The users will expect features create layers of complexity in navigation and to see various ways to communicate with others, share usability of mobile user interfaces.” To address these their experiences and content. This next generation of challenges, one of the most essential things for mobile mobile web will need to provide a new dimension of developers to understand is the context of use. The social networking for connecting with people. Instead of questions of what, where, when how, and who with the call a contact option in cell phones, there will be an respect to mobile web access must be answered. A user option to connect to a contact, where one can chat, talk, may want to read the latest news, see the current soccer leave a message, share content, and see each other score, subscribe to a stock feed, publish and comment through embedded cameras in the cell phones. There are on blogs, find a restaurant in a given zip code, ping a many other innovative mobile web applications that friend and many more at any point in time [18, 20]. The have been envisioned, some of which are detailed in the application needs to provide the answers in the next section. appropriate context. APPLICATIONS OF MOBILE WEB 2.0 An experiment to understand the different contextual This section presents mobile web 2.0 applications that aspects of mobile access was carried out at Gotomobile are more innovative and are gaining popularity among [20].