20 years of mobile data management research: vision and reality

Since the first research papers on mobile computing (c. 1989), enabled by the phenomenal progress of portable computers in the last 25 years, the vision of mobile computing some times has been riding the technology wave and other times has been ahead of the technology wave. As a result over the years, mobile computing has appeared under many aliases and new meanings: Portable, Nomadic, Mobile and Wireless, Pervasive, Invisible and Ubiquitous Computing. Irrespective of the alias, power-aware, context-aware, location-aware, mobile and wireless data management has been in the core of mobile computing and its vision can been simply summarized in three letters AAA: Anywhere, Anytime and in Any way/form. The goal of the panel is to discuss (1) to what extend this vision of reliable access to information and services anywhere, anytime and anyway has been achieved, for example, with smart phones -today's pervasive mobile device and (2) how research in mobile and wireless data management can continue to be transformative.