Extending Web 2.0 to the real world via bluetooth

Abstract

In this paper we describe and design a system that combines several ideas from different areas to create a mobile social networking system. This mobile social networking system seeks to help discover and encourage communication between strangers in real-world scenarios where socialising is an important aspect, such as a conference or a fair. The system uses Bluetooth technology to create an ad-hoc network of users, where each user is then able to use the system through a mobile device, to create a profile similar to a virtual business card, to share personal and business details among the other persons in the room. Having such a profile, an agent searches on the other Bluetooth devices to discover interesting profiles and recommend them to the user. In this paper we also present our evaluation procedures and our satisfactory results and conclude that the system presents innovative ways to discover the right networking opportunities in real life scenarios.