Location based services for mobile users: a scenario based implementation account

Many Location Based Services (LBSs) have been proposed, but they are developed mainly with a proprietary approach, i.e., they are specialized for managing specific tasks and are not able to make available the collected information to the services offered by other providers, thus limiting the potential benefits for the users. For this reason LBSs should be extended with a semantic layer able to provide the mobile users with the real time and off line information coming from the multitude of databases relevant for LBS activities, hopefully by using the same mobile device. Aim of the paper is to show how this can be accomplished in practice by integrating three methodologies in a single web architecture: a) a scenario based design methodology to implement the use stories of the mobile users, b) a semantic data management methodology to allow data integration, and c) a suitable JQuery Mobile based interface to allow the RoR web server to inform people on the available services independently on the adopted mobile. Keywords-component; Mobile Networked Applications; Intelligent Transport System; Scenario-based Design, Web