The emergence of ubiquitous computing as a new design paradigm poses significant challenges for HCI and interaction design. Traditionally, human-computer interaction has taken place within a constrained and well-understood domain of experience – single users sitting at desks and interacting with conventionally-designed computers employing screens, keyboards and mice for interaction. New opportunities have engendered considerable interest in “context-aware computing” – computational systems that can sense and respond to aspects of the settings in which they are used. However, considerable confusion surrounds the notion of “context” – what it means, what it includes, and what role it plays in interactive systems. This paper suggests that the representational stance implied by conventional interpretations of “context” misinterprets the role of context in everyday human activity, and proposes an alternative model that suggests different directions for design.

Traditionally, location systems have been built bottom-up beginning with low-level sensors and adding layers up to high-level context.

This paper reviews current approaches to designing virtual environments and investigates aspects of influence in designing auditory spaces to support novel forms of interaction in virtual places. Initial research on human imagined sounds from places has identified `expectation' as an important psychological construct, which must be considered when designing sounds for virtual places. The research work continues to provide evidence that there are differences between sounds people expect to hear in places and sounds recorded in real life places. Instead of designing realistic virtual spaces, the paper suggests a user's sense of presence as a measure of the user's experience in virtual environment. The results indicate that using highly expected sounds increases users' sense of presence. As such, it is to propose that designing auditory spaces using expectations as perceived affordance is perhaps a minimal way to design auditory spaces that support sense of place, hence provoke the emergence of virtual communities. Future work of the project is discussed.

Abstract. The emergence of ubiquitous computing as a new design paradigm poses significant challenges for HCI and interaction design. Traditionally, human-computer interaction has taken place within a constrained and well-understood domain of experience – single users sitting at desks and interacting with conventionally-designed computers employing screens, keyboards and mice for interaction. New opportunities have engendered considerable interest in “context-aware computing ” – computational systems that can sense and respond to aspects of the settings in which they are used. However, considerable confusion surrounds the notion of “context ” – what it means, what it includes, and what role it plays in interactive systems. This paper suggests that the representational stance implied by conventional interpretations of “context ” misinterprets the role of context in everyday human activity, and proposes an alternative model that suggests different directions for design. 1

Current research in the area of ubiquitous computing environments is shifting the focus of human computer interaction away from traditional interfaces such as keyboards and mice and towards more natural modes of interaction such as speech and gestures. An important environment that can benefit from this trend is the enterprise-enabled workspace but this domain has not been investigated in any great detail in current literature. Enterprise work environments require support across a range of activities that include meetings, strategic planning, remote coordination (command and control) and collaborative work activities such as software development. This project investigates the use of architectural frameworks as the infrastructure for next generation, enterprise-enabled, ubiquitous workspaces. "LiveSpaces", in the UNISA e-World laboratory, is an example of a research initiative to build an experimental, adaptive, context aware environment and is used as a basis to explore some of the issues involved in building future, collaborative work spaces. A meeting room scenario is employed to identify some of the attributes involved in underpinning these future workspaces. An experimental, hybrid software framework is built which involves integrating MIT's MetaGlue, a multi-agent, ubiquitous computing infrastructure, with DSTC's Open Distributed Services Infrastructure (ODSI), an enterprise enabled architecture that has a messaging based enterprise bus and a workflow focus. In addition to building the experimental infrastructure, the other major component in this thesis devotes itself to exploring the characteristics of enterprise-enabled workspaces and highlighting how MetaGlue and ODSI have supported these characteristics. Time was taken to examine the areas where the infrastruc...

Very little attention has been paid in smart space or ubiquitous computing research to the analysis of what is necessary for the management of applications in a diverse and multiple operator environment. By analyzing the ongoing smart space research and emergent (telecom, internet, enterprise) management system approaches, it has been possible to identify management requirements that need to be addressed.

At first, God bless us all. I would like to thank my advisor, Jean-Yves Tigli for his guidance, support and encouragement during the preparation of this dissertation and articles. Words cannot express my appreciation and deepest gratitude to my father, my mother and my brother for their love and emotional support. Thanks to all my family. My special thanks to Diane Lingrand for her support and for the articles. I want to express my gratitude to my friends from Brazil and to my new friends here in France to the moral support. I would like also to thank Celio Trois for his friendship. Finally, thank for all people involved during the academic year. "If the future's looking dark We're the ones who have to shine If there's no one in control