Mobile computing in the public sector: practices, opportunities, and arduous challenges

ABSTRACT

Along with cloud computing and data-centric computing Mobile Computing can be seen as a third building block of a rapidly emerging new computing paradigm, in which human actors expect to be able to satisfy their information and electronic transaction needs (combined data/voice) at any time and at any place. For the public sector this shift has numerous and challenging implications, but also holds promises of huge productivity gains and ubiquitous service availability in unprecedented ways. This tutorial introduces practices, opportunities, and challenges in public-sector field force automation. The tutorial briefly touches on the widely under-researched area of emergency and disaster response management in the context of the rapidly changing computing paradigms.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        D.2.11 Software Architectures
            Subjects: Domain-specific architectures

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.2 Social Issues
      K.4.4 Electronic Commerce

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Theory

Keywords:
business process analysis, cloud computing, cognitive work analysis, data-centric computing, digital government, disaster response management, e-government, emergency, field force automation, fully mobile wirelessly connected (FMWC), integration, interfacing, mobile computing, mobile government, pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing, work content, work context, workflow