Shared Spaces for Hand Held Devices

The growth of the Internet and World Wide Web has brought about easier and faster ways of sharing resources. Also, there have been rapid developments in wireless communication and hand held device technology that have presented even more power to the mobile user and increased the use of Internet based applications on hand held devices. Meanwhile, a shift has developed in computer software towards promoting collaboration in the workplace where teams share documents and have discussions. By using collaboration software, users in different offices are able to conduct virtual meetings, have discussions and exchange files. With mobile phones being used for more complex tasks such as writing documents, taking photos and Internet access, a need exists to allow hand held device users to share items with colleagues and friends and do collaborative work while on the move. This book describes a design and prototype system that allows sharing of files through a shared space using logical peer-to-peer sharing. Using this model of sharing, mobile phone or other hand held device users, and even PC users can achieve collaboration.