Integration of information systems from Business Information Systems (BIS) down to objects in the physical world (extended from [7] ) 

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... direct possibility to change the content, as e.g. in broadcasting. However, the future is aggregation, where the system compiles content in behalf of the consumer – contextualized, personalized, and individualized. One excellent example is the Portable Personality (P2) software, which collects metadata from various sources. An engine mines the metadata to usage context on any device and provides personalized content from any source [14]. Other more prominent examples are Google news or location based services as currently provided e.g. by Nokia Maps and Google’s mobile services. One of the key issues is how data can be integrated into Business Information Systems (BIS) . Currently many client based solution for ambient media start to emerge on markets (e.g. location based services). However, the process of integration of data of ubiquitous systems still requires much development. Examples for a professional integration of data are e.g. integration of location information to film material during movie production. The challenge is the automation of the process. Viewing the automation and smart integration of data from a media viewpoint, let’s refer to Figure 3. Today’s media landscape is dominated by participatory media (e.g. social media). However, the content model in the past evolved from content offerings to a mass market, niche media (e.g. themed TV channels), towards participatory media, where the consumer is the content creator. In the future, the media environment will be evolving towards a smart environment, where existing journalis- tic practices are shifting towards personalized context aware service spaces rather than single services. The key to enable smart media environments and integrated service spaces is context information. Depicting the idea of ambient media as digital overlay over the physical world. The principles of ambient media ( manifestation, morphing, intelligence, experience, and collaboration ) are included (see e.g. [13]). The integration of information management systems and processes spans partners from the whole value chain. They require harmonizing their ways of exchanging either tangible or intangible goods. This is especially important in supply chain management. Supply chain management deals with “controls the flow of products and services from suppliers right through to the end consumer” [22]. Efficient and produc- tive supply chain management is enabled through the integration of information management systems and processes. This can only happen through the development of common agreements how information exchange between business partners is taking place between information systems. Considerable efforts have been done on the field of electronic commerce, which let as series of standards emerge that cover 1) identification; 2) tracking; 3) management; and 4) protection of either physical or digital goods. A compilation of standards nor- mally utilized in electronic commerce has been discussed in [20]. The publication discusses a wide set of standards typically used in supply chain management such as e.g. bar codes, RFID tags, EPCglobal, and EAN.UCC. These standards are used to uniquely identify products and their application for supply chain management is common in today’s world of eCommerce. However, the publication also pinpoints to other – more advanced – standards for the automation of the supply chain, such as ebXML. ebXML has been designed by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) on the basis of XML. The standard enables among other possibilities the automation of messaging, business processes, and Where the upper standards mostly focus on physical goods, the market for intangible digital goods is rapidly increasing. The B2B exchange of digital media is on the raise, and the development of common formats for the exchange of information is required. This trend is very visible e.g. in the film & TV industry, where standards such as the Material eXchange Format (MXF) are published [18]. MXF enables the exchange of content across media production houses via the Internet rather than on physical carriers such as tapes. This enables the automation and integration of the supply chain from production house to the final distributor and further to the consumer. It is obvious, that with a rapid increase of ambient media technology, the automation of the supply chain is taking place. Currently there is still a trade-off between costs and benefits, but with the decline of costs of miniaturized technologies the gap will get closer. Ambient media allow a seamless integration of the value chain and speeding up the business processes, especially with the advent of more and more digital goods. However, the integration of information system happens vertically, from Business Information System (BIS) down to the physical world object level. This implies a harmonization of all the levels to enable full integration of several platforms (see Fig. 4). The vertical integration of the value chain and the need for harmonization has been discussed in [7]. One major issue is the integration of middleware from end- to-end. This issue has been discussed e.g. within the SAME workshop series in [21]. Intelligent methods and algorithms for information processing are predominant in any ambient media system. One of the key-technology is agent based computation. Agent based computation currently provides one of the main solutions, where software reacts autonomously on external stimuli. One practical example is e.g. the 3APL-M platform, which provides the core technology for deploying smart software on mobile devices. Agents on mobile phones are e.g. capable of contextualizing sensory input in behalf of the consumer [11][10]. The research field of consumer experience is hyping in today’s IT services. However, the idea behind consumer experience goes far beyond the current though of simply improving user-interfaces and providing cool hardware designs. The idea of experience in ambient media is that experience means knowledge. Thus experience relate to how humans enjoy media and how humans “act or process directly perceiving events or reality” [17]. Thus, neither the product (e.g. hardware), nor the services attached to the hardware, and nor content is king. The experience as such, consisting of a service space as agglomeration of devices, services, and content is king. Interoperability is one of the technical key-factors to create such an experience. There are quite a few examples that underlay this direction. One is ‘The Cloud’, where services are embedded into the Web and the consumer can access a full service cloud online. In ambient media, the vertical and horizontal integration of household equipment will lead to an integrated space, where many devices collaborate. The human becomes a collaborator rather than a user of the system. Within the scope of creating value through new applications, content, and services, we have to distinguish between consumer applications, and the application of ambient technology throughout the supply chain. Currently much research is centered on consumer applications, as they are easier to introduce rather than to change existing business processes. Within the scope of this section, the topic ‘value creation’ for both business domains is discussed. The main question concerning value creation through applications is, which challenges business are coping with, when adopting new technologies from the ubiquitous domain. A good starting point has been researched in [5], where four key challenges have been identified based on the theories of [2]: Network challenge: challenges related to the outbalancing of the value of new technology and cost benefit through the introduction of new technologies throughout the value chain. One example for this challenge is the introduction of RFID tags for retail chains, and who overtakes the costs (either the retailer or the distributor) (see e.g. [5]); • Constraints challenges: challenges related to value chain exterior factors, such as regulations, privacy, or global macro-economic trends. One good example are privacy concerns of location aware services, context aware services, or the data of a smart home; • Implementation challenges: challenges faced due to technological problems, resources, knowledge, and practicability of the planed system; • Valuation challenges: challenges related to the tangible valuation either before investment or after investment. Several of these challenges directly impact the introduction of new ambient media technology. To understand the value creation through ambient media services, we have to understand the reason why industrial players should invest into new technologies. To understand the costs and benefits, especially to valuate the return on investment a suitable taxonomy has been developed in [4] entitled the “benefits ladder”, which is illustrated in Table 1. In the following sections applied ambient media is discussed from the perspective of the Project Ladder focusing on two steps of the ladder: man- datory changes, and automation. One of the most prominent ambient media services are location based services such as e.g. GPS based navigation. Google offered free access to navigation, through their service offering via Google Maps, which provided Google. With the development of a mobile client, also other consumer device manufactures were forced to keep up with the competitive advantage of Google’s service to provide free navigation. This is a good example for adding value forced through competitive pressure, as e.g. Nokia had to cope with the competition through free offering of the Nokia Ovi Maps service. However, the later still allows the access to the navigation service offline, thus without Internet access, which makes enhances the competitiveness of Nokia Ovi Map’s application. A good example for automation as infrastructure for improving ...