ISHTAR - Industrial Stimuli for the Harmonisation of European Research in the area of Location Based Services
Overview
Background & policy context:
The setting of the ISHTAR SSA project was the contribution towards the harmonisation of technologies, services/applications, and standardisation efforts in the field of Location Based Services (LBS).
In this respect, the project facilitated and promoted the exploitation of existing and emerging relevant expertises and practices. The overall background is therefore the European IST Strategic Objective of 'Applications and Services for the Mobile User and Worker', as well as the strategic objective 'To progress towards the achievement of the objectives of a European Research Area in a given IST field'.
The ISHTAR consortium was therefore composed of a selected set of organisations with complementary expertise (telecom operator, manufacturer, system integrators, GIS content providers) in the LBS and mobile applications sector.
Moreover, the consortium partners are/were key members in four IST R&D projects targeting the 'Applications and Services for the Mobile User and Worker' IST Strategic Objective, namely LIAISON, MobileIN, SHARE, POMPEI.
The ISHTAR SSA project closely monitored the progress and benchmarked the intermediate achievements and final outcomes of the above-mentioned projects. Furthermore, it established inter-project links and facilitated the dissemination and exploitation of results over and above the standard diffusion and exploitation activities of the individual projects.
Objectives:
The ISHTAR project pursued five main objectives:
- Identify and report on knowledge and expertise gaps that can be spotted, particularly in terms of technological interoperability in the field of Location Based Services at the European level.
- Contribute towards the harmonisation of standardisation efforts relating to LBS in terms of technologies (GIS, positioning techniques, etc.), generic applications/services, and also on special application fields (e.g. emergency applications, enterprise/business, entertainment, etc.) through the submission of formal roadmap recommendations (so-called 'ISHTAR positions') to the relevant standardisation bodies (3GPP, OMA, OGC, ISO).
- Derive a pan-European map of expertise in the field of Location Based Services and relevant technologies, also containing concrete information (e.g. SWOT analyses) and proof (e.g. market data) on the success and viability of R&D achievements at the European level.
- Develop a concrete, future-proof, long-term strategy proposal (five-year roadmap) for the organisation and coordination of future R&D activities in the field of location based applications and services for the mobile user.
- Effectively facilitate and promote the dissemination (i.e. organisation of two workshops embracing awareness sessions, presentations etc.) and exploitation (e.g. development of 'merged' model business plans) of existing and emerging expertises and practises in the field of Location Based Services.
Methodology:
The ISHTAR project's methodology was built around three main activities:
1. Harmonisation of LBS standardisation efforts
This first step started with the analysis of past and ongoing standardisation efforts related to Location Based Services, with the aim of identifying groups of standards corresponding to the three identified thematic areas of interest (LBS technology, LBS common applications and services, LBS special application fields). This allowed pinpointing standardisation problems, especially dealing with interoperability issues in all of the three areas. The objective was then to propose solutions for the harmonisation of the conflicting recommendations and a roadmap addressing current standards limitations.
2. Pan-European mapping of LBS expertise
This second step expanded on the first, as it started by identifying the FP6 LBS-related R&D projects/activities within and outside the IST context. The goal was to:
- establish direct communication and interactions with the LBS stakeholders and research activities/projects of interest,
- develop and exploit a systematic approach for the assessment of past and ongoing R&D activities in the domain of Location Based Services.
ISHTAR was then able to derive a pan-European map of expertise in the field of Location Based Services and relevant technologies, and consequently to initially identify missing expertise and technological gaps/barriers at European level.
3. Road-mapping and development of R&D strategy
The overall aim of this step was to produce the ISHTAR LBS R&D Strategy and Roadmap, preparing the ground for related R&D activities in FP7 and the associated implementation models.
The approach was to start by conducting an extensive survey on state of the art technologies related to Location Based Services, studying technological trends and industrial relevance. The aim was to identify the most promising issues requiring further research and development, as well as to select a representative number of research topics of industrial interest.
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