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The World Wide Web (Web) has become a key technology to provide access to on-line information. The Mobile Web users, who access the Web using small devices such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), make errors on entering text and controlling cursors. These errors are caused by both the characteristics of a device and the environment in which it is used, and are called situational impairments. Disabled Web users, on the other hand, have difficulties in accessing the Web due to their impairments in visual, hearing or motor abilities. We assert that errors experienced by the Mobile Web users share similarity in scope with those hindering motor-impaired Web users with dexterity issues, and existing solutions from the motor-impaired users domain can be migrated to the Mobile Web domain to address the common errors.Results of a systematic literature survey have revealed 12 error types that affect both the Mobile Web users and disabled Web users. These errors range from unable to locate a key to unable to pin-point a cursor. User experiments have confirmed that the Mobile Web users and motor-impaired Web users share errors in scope: they both miss key presses, press additional keys, unintentionally press a key more than once or press a key too long. In addition, both small device users and motor-impaired desktop users have difficulties in performing clicking, multiple clicking and drag selecting. Furthermore, when small device users are moving, both the scope and the magnitude of the errors are shared. In order to address these errors, we have migrated existing solutions from the disabled Web users domain into the Mobile Web users domain. We have developed a typing error correction system for the Mobile Web users. Results of the user evaluation have indicated that the proposed system can significantly reduce the error rates of the Mobile Web users.This work has an important contribution to both the Web accessibility field and the Mobile Web field. By leveraging research from the Web accessibility field into the Mobile Web field, we have linked two disjoint domains together. We have migrated solutions from one domain to another, and thus have improved the usability and accessibility of the Mobile Web.

The existing advanced web browsers in today’s mobile phones open up the door for mobile web applications. By using standard webtechnologies, a web page can be crafted to mimic the behavior of a normal application. The purpose of this master’s thesis has been to look at web application development for mobile phones in general and to implement a web-based Mobile TV client to determine whether it would be a viable alternative to existing clients based on other technologies. The advantages are the same as for any other web application: 1) the user avoids the hassle of installing an application and will always run the latest version, 2) developers benefit from the browser’s ability to render generic content, and 3) it is believed that the differences between browser implementations are less than in other environments in which an application would run, for example Java or operating system specificenvironments. / De avancerade webbläsare som redan idag finns tillgängliga på nyare mobiltelefoner har gjort det möjligt att skapa mobila webbapplikationer. Genom användandet av befintlig webbteknik kan en webbsida utformas på ett sådant sätt att den uppträder som en vanlig applikation. Syftet med det här examensarbetet har varit att titta på webbutveckling för mobiltelefoner i allmänhet samt att implementera en webbaserad MobilTV-klient för att avgöra hurivida en sådan lösning skulle kunna utgöra ett alternativ till redan existerande klienter baserade på andra teknologier. Fördelarna antas vara desamma som för andra webbapplikationer: 1) användaren slipper installera ett program och kommer alltid att köra den senaste versionen, 2) utvecklingen gynnas av webbläsarens förmåga att rendera godtyckligt innehåll och 3) skillnaderna mellan olika webbläsarimplementationer anses vara mindre i jämförelse med andra miljöer i vilka en applikation körs, till exempel Java- eller operativsystemspecifika.

Existing QoS-aware Web Services discovery architectures tend to focus solely on fulfilling the requirements of either the client or the provider. However, the interests of the provider and client are not equivalent. The provider’s goal is to maximize the profit and consume the least amount of resources. On the other hand, the client’s selection is determined by their own requirements which do not always reflect the real resource overheads. This research aims to provide a novel mobile Web Services discovery and selection method based on utility functions to balance the requirements for clients and providers. In the mobile environment, it is critical to conserve resource consumption in addition to fulfilling user requirements, as resources such as wireless network bandwidth and mobile device power are precious. The proposed service selection strategy enables service providers to balance the cost/performance ratios and utilize the network bandwidth more effectively, while the clients can still attain the functional and quality levels specified in the service request.

Existing QoS-aware Web Services discovery architectures tend to focus solely on fulfilling the requirements of either the client or the provider. However, the interests of the provider and client are not equivalent. The provider’s goal is to maximize the profit and consume the least amount of resources. On the other hand, the client’s selection is determined by their own requirements which do not always reflect the real resource overheads. This research aims to provide a novel mobile Web Services discovery and selection method based on utility functions to balance the requirements for clients and providers. In the mobile environment, it is critical to conserve resource consumption in addition to fulfilling user requirements, as resources such as wireless network bandwidth and mobile device power are precious. The proposed service selection strategy enables service providers to balance the cost/performance ratios and utilize the network bandwidth more effectively, while the clients can still attain the functional and quality levels specified in the service request.

Οι τεχνολογίες των υπηρεσιών ιστού οδήγησαν στην εξέλιξη των ασύρματων δικτύων, με αποτέλεσμα να αναπτύσσονται ιδιαίτερα οι εφαρμογές του Mobile Web. Οι χρήστες του Mobile Web έχουν τη δυνατότητα να απολαμβάνουν τις υπηρεσίες του διαδικτύου χωρίς να απαιτείται κάποιος υπολογιστής γραφείου ή καλώδια, μόνον με τη χρήση μικρών φορητών συσκευών όπως τα κινητά τηλέφωνα. Είναι επιθυμητό όμως οι ιστοσελίδες που εμφανίζονται στην οθόνη του κινητού να έχουν την ίδια παρουσίαση με αυτές που εμφανίζονται στην οθόνη ενός υπολογιστή γραφείου ώστε να αυξάνεται η “εμπειρία” του χρήστη. Για να πραγματοποιηθεί αυτό διάφορες επιστημονικές ομάδες ασχολούνται με μεθόδους βελτιστοποίησης και προσαρμοστικότητας εφαρμογών για το Mobile Web. Έχουν καθοριστεί επιπλέον κάποια πρότυπα χαρακτηριστικά τα οποία οφείλουν να ακολουθούν οι σχεδιαστές και χρησιμοποιούνται συγκεκριμένες γλώσσες σήμανσης περιεχομένου όπως η WML (Wireless Markup Language), XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), XHTML MP (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language Mobile Web). / The technologies of web services have led to the evolution of wireless networks and that results in the development of the applications of Mobile Web. The users of the Mobile Web have the opportunity to enjoy internet services without the need of a desktop computer or cables, just only with the use of mobile devices such as mobile phones. It is desirable, the web pages that come up in the screen of a mobile phone to have the same or almost the same representation with that of a desktop computer in order to increase the user experience. To make this a reality certain scientific groups try to ameliorate the applications of the Mobile Web. The designers use specific standards and also certain markup languages such as WML (Wireless Markup Language), XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) and XHTML MP (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language Mobile Web).

Includes bibliographical references / Although learning management systems (LMSs) have been widely adopted by universities in developing countries, their potential to support students' learning has not been fully exploited due to several factors. Some of the factors limiting the more successful implementation of LMSs in developing country universities have been identified and reported in this study. Most importantly, LMS implementation in developing country universities is constrained by limited institutional ICT infrastructures, Internet bandwidth and electricity outages that affect the accessibility of LMS services by the students. The main research question addressed in this study is: How can we better use the available ICTs and ICT infrastructure in developing country universities to enhance the accessibility of the LMS services by students to better support the implementation of LMSs? The research question was addressed through surveys and experimentation. Two surveys were carried out, and the findings of these surveys were useful in: understanding the current state of practice in LMS implementation in developing country universities; defining the problem; understanding the students' LMS expectations and needs; and deciding the nature of the intervention to be implemented. Through the surveys, it was established that the majority of students in the surveyed universities possessed mobile phones, most of which being internet enabled phones. The study therefore explored the possibility of enabling and enhancing mobile access for LMS services so as to enhance students' LMS accessibility through their mobile phones. The design, development, implementation and evaluation of the intervention (the mobile LMS) were achieved through a user-centred development approach that included participatory design, prototyping and user experience evaluation. An impact evaluation of the mobile LMS intervention indicated that: mobile LMS interfaces can lead to students' increased access and use of the LMS through mobile phones; students prefer streamlined mobile LMS interfaces with fewer and block-based services; with streamlined mobile LMS interfaces, students are able to get the LMS services they need on their mobile phones without the need for desktop and laptop computers and without the need for the full desktop LMS interfaces. While the streamlined mobile LMS allows the students an opportunity to more satisfactorily access the LMS services through their mobile phones, it also takes away the pressure from the constrained institutional ICT infrastructure and facilities such as computer laboratories. The design and development process of the mobile LMS intervention highlighted that students' involvement leads to creation of more usable and useful mobile LMS interfaces and that most of the students' mobile LMS needs can be achieved through a cross-platform mobile Web application.

To support wireless-oriented services, a new generation of Web services called Mobile services (M-services) has emerged. M-services provide mobile users access to services through wireless networks. One of the important issues in M-service environment is how to discover and access M-services efficiently. In this dissertation, we propose time and power efficient access methods for M-services. We focus on methods for accessing broadcast based M-services from multiple wireless channels. We first discuss efficient access methods in data-oriented wireless broadcast systems. We then discuss how to extend current wireless broadcast systems to support simple M-services. We present a novel infrastructure that provides a multi-channel broadcast framework for mobile users to effectively discover and access composite M-services. Multi-channel algorithms are proposed for efficiently accessing composite services. We define a few semantics that have impact on access efficiency in the proposed infrastructure. We discuss semantic access to composite services. Broadcast channel organizations suitable for discovering and accessing composite services are proposed. We also derive analytical models for these channel organizations. To provide practical study for the proposed infrastructure and access methods, a testbed is developed for simulating accessing M-services in a broadcast-based environment. Extensive experiments have been conducted to study the proposed access methods and broadcast channel organizations. The experimental results are presented and discussed. / Ph. D.

With the rapid advancement of mobile devices, people have become more attached to them than ever. This rapid growth combined with millions of applications (apps) make smartphones a favourite means of communication among users. In general, the available contents on smartphones, apps and the web, come into two versions: (i) free contents that are monetized via advertisements (ads), and (ii) paid ones that are monetized by user subscription fees. However, the resources (energy, bandwidth, processing power) on-board are limited, and the existence of ads in either websites or free apps can adversely impact these resources. These issues brought the need for good understanding of the mobile advertising eco-system and how such limited resources can be efficiently used. This thesis focuses on mobile web browsing. Surfing web-pages on smatphones is one of the most commonly used task among smartphone users. However, web-page complexity is increasing, especially when designed for desktop computers. On one hand, the existence of ads in web-pages is essential for publishers' monetization strategy. On the other hand, their existence in webpages leads to even higher complexity of the webpages. This complexity in the smartphone environment, where the battery and bandwidth resources are limited, is reflected in longer loading time, more energy consumed, and more bytes transferred. With this view, quantifying the energy consumption due to web ads in smartphones is essential for publishers to optimize their webpages, and for system designers to develop an energy-aware applications (browsers) and protocols. Apart from their energy impact, ads consume network bandwidth as well. Therefore, quantifying the bandwidth consumption due to downloading web ads is crucial to creating more energy and bandwidth aware applications. This thesis first classifies web content into: (i) core information, and (ii) forced ``unwanted" information, namely ads. Then, describes an approach that enables the separation of web content in a number of a websites. Having done so, the energy cost due to downloading, rendering, and displaying web ads over Wi-Fi and 3G networks is evaluated. That is, how much energy web ads contribute to the total consumed energy when a user accesses the web. Furthermore, the bandwidth consumed by web ads in a number of well-known websites is also evaluated. Motivated by our findings about ads' impact on the energy and bandwidth, the thesis proposes and implements a novel web-browsing technique that adapts the webpages delivered to smartphones, based on a smartphone's current battery level and the network type. Webpages are adapted by controlling the amount of ads to be displayed. Validation tests confirm that the system, in some cases, can extend smartphone battery life by up to ~ 30\% and save wireless bandwidth up to ~ 44\%.