03-08-2012, 04:33 PM
iZone: A Location-Based Mobile Social Networking System
iZone A Location-Based Mobile Social Networking System.doc (Size: 679 KB / Downloads: 38)
INTRODUCTION
Social networking is a relatively new and still developing field that focuses on the analysis of social relationship. Human beings can only survive, mature, and reach self- actualization in social networking. Social networking puts its attention on social objects as, for instance, members of an association, employees of a firm, firms themselves and so on. Both theoretical advances and real-life applications are booming day by day [1, 2, 3]. Social networking exists since human beings exist. We live, work in it and may never feel it. In the history of mankind, one important technology revolution is sure to be associated with media revolution. All activities of human are essentially activities of information. During that phase time and material cost are continuously reduced by human in social networking. Cost-efficient media is always popular with human.
In 21st century, mobile phones are growing in popularity all around the world. Mobile phone has developed from a tool for chatting to a necessary friend in social networking. As it has more and more useful functions in social communication, it has gradually become an indispensable part of people's life [4]. In this case, mobile social networking (MSN) system emerges at a historic moment. Mobile social networking is a typical social network where one or more individuals of similar interests or commonalities, conversing and connecting with one another using mobile phones [5]. In the information age, it seems that people communicate using mobile devices every day.
RELATED WORK
MSN systems are developing fast around the world. There are many examples of commercialized operations. For instance, Plazes is a location-aware interaction system that helps mobile users hook up with friends or other like-minded people anywhere on the globe. Jambo Networks uses Wi-Fi- enabled laptops, mobile phones, and PDAs to match people within walking distance who have similar interests and would like to meet face to face [6]. Friendster, Dodgeball, and Facebook are three examples to promote discovery and interaction with both friends and strangers [7]. Amazon allows users to review products but no friendship among users can be defined. On the other hand, Facebook has an explicit friendship circle defined by individual users who get automatic updates on their friends’ activities [8]. MSN is meanwhile a booming industry in China. China Mobile launched Making Friends in Fetion, which led the trend of mobile social networking in China [9].
IZONE SYSTEM DESIGN
iZone is designed to be a comprehensive, secure, convenient and easy-handling platform. It is a J2ME project that can run on mobile devices which support CLDC 1.0 and MIDP 2.0. This platform is a type of intelligent location- based system which combines GIS and location information. iZone can collect position data and other space information, then automatically extract things that may be interested by users, and finally send them to the users in a humanizing form. Meanwhile, it offers users some social networking services, such as instant messaging, blog publication, photo uploading and position tracing based on users' location.
As shown in Fig. 2, iZone is mainly divided into the following seven subsystems: Registration and Login Subsystem, Map Subsystem, Homepage Subsystem, Friend Subsystem, Mail Subsystem, Local Information Subsystem and Setting Subsystem.
CONCLUSIONS
This paper has presented the design and a prototype implementation of our iZone system. The system is based on a combination of wireless technology, J2ME, LBS and GIS and is able to locate users and send information based on their locations. A powerful iZone system is still under implementation. We believe that the wide spread of mobile phones and wireless technology will lead to extensive development of location-based applications.