Convergent communication technologies and services with context awareness

Summary form only given. The worlds of universal telephony and best-effort data networking, two disparate communication services in the past, are converging to one in which the user's multimedia experiences are becoming increasingly rich, personalized, spontaneous and interactive. The so-called converged network has set the stage for user-centric broadband services. For example, on-demand media is expected to encompass a multiplicity of information sources (from MP3 download and digital audio broadcast to mobile video), networks (from dialed-up to WiMax) and terminal devices (from multimedia PDA with 3G mobile to HDTV). This calls for innovations in efficient and intelligent content processing, distribution and information management. Even more fundamentally, as service personalization (in the general term of context which includes situation, location and availability) becomes the critical differentiation factor in the market, the new convergent communication may demand an architectural focus that will prove indispensable in the trustworthy support and management of context-aware services. In this talk, we articulate for such a vision and point out technical challenges that have to be harnessed in order to realize the vision of right information and right service at the right time.