Contextual Replication for Mobile Users

The classic tension between designing systems around thin client applications to facilitate controlling and sharing an enterprise’s information resources and thick client applications to avoid dependence on a centralized, potentially unreliable infrastructure has never been more prominent than in today’s mobile computing environments. Contextual replication can mitigate this tension by providing mobile users with the benefits of shared information managed according to well-defined business processes while accommodating the connectivity and interface limitations inherent in mobile devices. In the Cogenia system, a user’s changing information needs are anticipated by examining the user’s context, including his recent and upcoming appointments, business and personal contacts, current location, and important tasks. Personalized information is accessible on the user’s mobile device through the applications with which the user is already familiar. Utilizing active, two-way replication, changes made from a mobile device are propagated to other devices and other users that share this information.