The market penetration on the part of mobile devices (e.g. mobile phones, personal digital assistants, etc.) supporting wireless communication and interaction opens high-potential application areas in our everyday lives. Furthermore, we think this will cause dramatically changes in the way people interact with each other and therefore we have to investigate the social impacts of these developments. This paper describes our idea of the social benefits mobile (ad hoc) applications can provide to their users. It aims at bringing together people who are in physical proximity, in equal or similar situations or do have the same interests. Keywords: Mobile ad hoc interaction, social benefit of mobile ad hoc interaction Workshop paper available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262687497_Bringing_Together_People_Social_Benefit_of_Mobile_Ad_Hoc_Applications?ev=prf_pub

1. CHI Workshop on Mobile Ad Hoc Collaboration, April 22, 2002 1
Bringing Together People: Social Benefit of
Mobile Ad Hoc Applications
Mario Pichler, Thomas Hofer, Gerhard Leonhartsberger
Software Competence Center Hagenberg
Austria
Mario Pichler
mario.pichler@scch.at
+43 7236 3343 898
www.scch.at

2. CHI Workshop on Mobile Ad Hoc Collaboration, April 22, 2002 2
Vision
 Bringing together people and supporting the
social interactions among them
Shu&Inkpen: "One of our focuses is to use [...] technology to
facilitate spontaneous social interactions among strangers."
Sanneblad&Holmquist: "Our goal is to provide a way for
people in public places to use CMC (Computer-Mediated
Communication) techniques to interact with each other,
possibly resulting in a face-to-face interaction."
Our statement: "After the game people could [...] meet in the
dining car having a drink together."

3. CHI Workshop on Mobile Ad Hoc Collaboration, April 22, 2002 3
Application Domains
 Situations where people are members of groups
without explicitly realizing this fact - examples:
 When people come together in physical proximity
(shopping malls, sport stadiums, concert halls etc.)
 When people reside in equal or similar situations
(people waiting on train- and tram stations etc.)
 When people have the same interests
(people participating at the same conference, motorcyclists etc.)
 Establish some sense of community-awareness

4. CHI Workshop on Mobile Ad Hoc Collaboration, April 22, 2002 4
Conclusion
 A number of common research topics of
participants of this workshop
 This will surely be a good discussion base
 A benefit of mobile ad hoc applications:
The possibility to get in real contact with a person
you got acquainted with recently during a device
mediated ad hoc interaction.

5. CHI Workshop on Mobile Ad Hoc Collaboration, April 22, 2002 5
Mobile Meeting Agenda