An Automatic Meeting Scheduling for Mobile Users

Emerging mobile computing technologies have increasingly enhanced the ability of people and organisations to work in collaboration at different locations and even on the move. By using various handheld devices such as PDAs, mobile phones, and electronic pens, remote and mobile people can flexibly exchange text and multimedia information with each other, and virtually work together as a cohesive group independent of time and location (constraints). Effective mobile collaboration requires reliable communication methods to connect people. More importantly, in-time, on-demand meeting scheduling design is necessary so as to bring fixed or mobile people together to discuss collective activities, such as planning of group work and allocation of resources whenever requested. As people usually have different availability and time arrangement preferences, quickly identifying preferable scheduling solutions for a group of people with heterogeneous and sometimes conflicting requirements is a challenge.