Apologies if you receive multiple copies +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Special Issue on Context-Aware Middleware and Applications Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (Springer) Guest Editors: Zhiwen Yu, Daqing Zhang, Jadwiga Indulska, Christian Becker +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Context-aware computing is a central theme of ubiquitous computing. In order to facilitate the development and proliferation of context-aware applications in ubiquitous environment, a context-aware middleware is indispensable. Although many middleware systems have been presented in recent years, context-aware applications are still not very widely deployed in our real-life settings. Several key issues are not properly addressed, such as low-cost (light-weight), QoS, spontaneous access, prototype verification and testing, balancing autonomy and user control, safety and privacy, scalability, etc.. Context-aware middleware and applications require further scientific research for extending the current capabilities to be more effective and applicable in the real world. This special issue aims to further scientific research within the field of context-aware middleware and applications for ubiquitous computing. It will accept original research papers that report the latest results and advances in this area. It also will invite review articles that focus on the state-of-the-art context-aware concepts, systems, trends and challenges. The papers will be peer reviewed and will be selected on the basis of their quality and relevance to the theme of this special issue. ---------- Topics ---------- Topics include (but are not limited to): - Middleware design patterns - Middleware for activity-based computing - Domain-specific middleware - Middleware support for ubiquitous multimedia - Middleware support for socially aware computing - low-cost/light-weight middleware - Context modeling and reasoning - Conflict resolution - User modeling and personalization - Distributed and scalable context management - Spontaneous service discovery and access - Multimodality support - QoS support - Balance of autonomy with user control - Safety and privacy - Context-aware prototype verification and testing - Standards and tools for middleware development - Evaluation of context-aware middleware and applications ------------------- Important Dates ------------------- Full manuscript due: Dec. 1, 2009 Notification of the first review process: Feb. 15, 2010 Final acceptance notification: Apr. 20, 2010 Final manuscript due: May 1, 2010 Publication date: Summer or Fall 2010 (Tentative) ---------------------- Submission Guidelines ---------------------- Submissions should be prepared according to the author instructions available at the journal homepage, http://www.springer.com/computer/user+interfaces/journal/779. Manuscripts must be submitted in the form of PDF file to the corresponding editor Zhiwen Yu (zhiweny@gmail.com). Information about the manuscript (title, full list of authors, corresponding author's contact, abstract, and keywords) must be included in the submission email. Relevant best papers of UIC-09 (The 6th International Conference on Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing, http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~uic09/) can be extended and invited to this special issue. The UIC-09 extended versions must have at least 30% difference from their original papers and will receive further peer review. ---------------- Guest Editors ---------------- Zhiwen Yu, Northwestern Polytechnical University, P. R. China, Email: zhiwenyu@nwpu.edu.cn Daqing Zhang, Institut TELECOM & Management SudParis, France, Email: Daqing.Zhang@it-sudparis.eu Jadwiga Indulska, The University of Queensland, Australia, Email: jaga@itee.uq.edu.au Christian Becker, University of Mannheim, Germany, Email: christian.becker@uni-mannheim.de ------------------------------------------The end-----------------------------------------