Project Proposal
CS 8803 – Advanced Internet Application Development
‘Buzz Spot’ – Mobile Web Application with Location Finder & File Sharing
Aarti Dongargaonkar, Jinal Doshi
{aarti, jinal}@cc.gatech.edu
Abstract
With the advent of mobile phones, it is possible to contact a person almost anywhere and
everywhere. As this became possible, we feel the need of inclusion of many more
functionalities into the mobile phone. One such functionality would be accessing web sites like
Orkut and Facebook. These enable users to maintain relationships, stay in touch and
exchange information free of cost.
Motivation:
With the introduction of mobility, we feel the need to know how many of my friends are
attending a particular event here right now or may be I want to know if by any chance
someone known is around here. Hence, it will be of great use if location information of
friends can be captured. With the advent of Location Based Services mobile devices can
be made intelligent to track locations of other devices.
While traveling, I suddenly think of a particular problem that was discussed in the class
and want to review it. I know one of my friends has the notes on his mobile phone’s shared
folder. I wish I could share that file. This feature would make my life so very simple.
Availability of utilities like file sharing on mobile phone without involvement of the other
party will make one completely mobile. Such applications allow users to exchange useful
information that they desire.
I want to let my project group know of my absence for a particular meeting at the very
last minute. I wish I could let all of them know about my absence and make my report
available to them. It would be so simple had I been having an option of communities on
my mobile phone. I would just “shout” on that community and put my file in share mode.
We propose to develop a prototype of an application that will include such functionalities
limiting our scope to Georgia Tech Campus.
Related Work:
The ((Echo))MyPlace [1] system which is currently in its Beta version is very similar in
functionality to the location finder and Shout message functionality which we intend to
implement. It allows you to share and provides location based information about
neighborhood and friends. There is a lot of work going on in Mobile Peer-to-Peer content
sharing services as in [3]. But this implementation uses the SIP protocol that is a part of IP
Multimedia Subsystem. This application was also implemented on a mobile handset using a
GPRS access. Our mobile-to-mobile file sharing utility is inspired by this work. MSN
messenger is coming up with Shared Map Browsing functionality [2] which allows users to
go through a map together and decide on a common location to meet.
Proposed Work
The project deals with implementing a Social Networking system on a mobile phone. It
adds on a location finder and a file sharing utility. The location finder will use the
mapping capabilities of the MapPoint webservice to track location of friends in the
Campus. We are also planning to implement a Shout message functionality wherein if a
user needs some information he will broadcast it to all users. For instance user can post a
shout message like “I need steps to install PHP Server on my computer. Please Help!!! “
Functionalities
Following is the list of functionalities that we intend to include in the application.
1) User Registration & Login:
A new user has to register and create new profile. Whenever he wants to access the
system next he has to login with his username and password.
2) Add Friends
A user can create a friend list by adding new friends to his list. Once a friend is added his
name and a display picture appears on the list.
3) Location Map
By clicking on the contact in the friend list leads to a map giving the current location of
that friend. A right click on that gives options to leave a scrap, view his shared folder and
to view his communities.
4) Scrapbook
Users can leave scraps like short messages on each others scrap book which will be kept
public. So even if the user is not a friend he can leave a scrap for the other person and
read his scrapbook.
5) Shout Messages
Shout messages are an option provided to the students to enable them to exchange useful
information. A student can post a shout message which will be broadcast to his entire
friend list. He can also select particular communities where he wishes to post the shout
message. The message then appears in his friend’s inbox whenever he logs in. Also when a
user other than a friend visits this profile he can see the shout messages. This enhances the
knowledge sharing process.
6) File Sharing
Every user can maintain a shared folder containing files which he wishes to share with
other users. For maintaining privacy and security of this folder can be accessed only by
the friends of the user.
7) User Communities
Users having some common interests can come together to form groups. For instance ‘Linux
Lovers Community’ where they can share knowledge and post related stuff.
Architecture & Design
The proposed architecture of the system is as shown in the diagram.
Database
Server
MapPoint
server
Web Server
The mobile user logs in to the application and can then see a list of friends. They can view
a location map to find out location of their friends on campus. This information is obtained
using the web services of Microsoft MapPoint. The user can also read shout messages sent
by other friends possibly broadcasting some news about some event or asking for some
information. All this data about the users is obtained by querying the database server.
The users can also share and download files from each other.
Plan of Action
The technologies we intend to use:
1) Visual Studio 2005 – C#.Net or J2ME
2) Web Services - Map Point
3) Web Server – Apache Tomcat
4) Database – MySQL
TimeLine
Week # 1: Website development – Discuss the design and layout of the website and
structure the website accordingly.
Week # 2: Design the database schema model and create a database.
Week # 3: Learn how to use Map Point to fetch the desired data as and when required.
Week # 4: Map UI – Design it in a manner that is user-friendly.
Week # 5: File Transfer functionality implementation.
Week # 6: Search, add, delete a friend functionality implementation.
Week # 7: Shout and community functionality implementation.
Week # 8: Integrate location and file transfer functionalities with the application.
Week # 9: Final Integration and Testing on Emulator.
Evaluation and Testing Method
1) The user has to input the location information when logging in. We will not be using
GPS for auto-update of location information.
2) Due to lack of hardware, we intend to demonstrate only on an emulator.
3) The evaluation would be based on implementation of following modules – Shout,
Location and File Sharing.
References
[1] ((Echo))MyPlace- http://echomyplace.com/
[2] http://virtualearth.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!1p1jUqsfPsDJ0sEPuZ997-OA!217.entry
[3] M.Matuszewski, N.Beijar, J.Lehtinen and T.Hyyryläinen - “Mobile Peer-to-Peer Content
Sharing Application”, IEEE CCNC 2006 proceedings
[4] Microsoft Mappoint - http://msdn.microsoft.com/mappoint/