ConTEL 2007

Keynote talk 1

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Smart Earth: Networked Information Management in a Wireless World

Karl Aberer
Professor
EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

Abstract:

We introduce a model for information management in a world where information from the physical environment is gathered through a ubiquitous wireless networks. Thus the Internet information space and the physical environment become increasingly entangled in a tightly connected system, that we call a Smart Earth. We illustrate technical challenges and applications from the work of the Swiss National Competence Centre of Research in Mobile Information and Communication Systems (NCCR-MICS). We identify the three layers of data access networks, semantic overlay networks and social networks as essential building blocks for networked information management and observe that each of these network layers will be largely self-organized. Finally we argue that understanding the interplay among these self-organizing network layers will be an important research challenge for the future.

Biographical sketch:

Karl Aberer is a Professor for Distributed Information Systems at EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland, and director of the Swiss National Centre for Mobile Information and Communication Systems (NCCR-MICS). His research interests are on decentralization and self-organization in information systems with applications in peer-to-peer search, overlay networks, trust management and mobile and sensor networks. Before joining EPFL in 2000 he was leading the research division of open adaptive information systems at the Integrated Publication and Information Systems Institute (IPSI) of GMD in Germany, which he joined in 1992. There his work concentrated on XML data management and cross-organizational workflows. He studied mathematics at ETH Zürich where he also completed his Ph.D. in theoretical computer science in 1991. From 1991 to 1992 he was postdoctoral fellow at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) at the University of California, Berkeley. He is member of several journal editorial boards, including VLDB Journal, and conference steering committees. Recently he served as PC co-chair of ICDE 2005, MDM 2006 and ISWC 2007.

Web:

http://lsirpeople.epfl.ch/aberer
http://www.mics.ch

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