A brief round table introduction of all the meeting participants

A brief overview of the origins, history, objectives and activities of Mobile VCE, as well as an introduction to the member companies & universities involved with Mobile VCE, and the ways in which they interact. Walter will also provide a top level introduction to the objectives of the Instant Knowledge programme.

This agenda slot is intended to provide opportunity for each of the members of the Business User Group to explain in a little more detail their own personal and organisation background, their role within their company, and what they hope to gain from involvement with the programme

Instant Knowledge can be viewed as the basis of a family of new services which will allow companies and organisations to harvest and harness the tacit knowledge of their employees, potentially providing new business capabilities and methods of working. By its very nature, the concept of harvesting and sharing personal information presents profound concerns relating to privacy, trust and validation in multiple domains - ie the need to implement appropriate controls and trade offs in regard to the privacy & security policies of the business, the individual user and the service supplier.

Nigel Jefferies will present the Instant Knowledge concept and the related challenges which this programme will address, to set the scene for the work of the Business User Group and of the overall programme.

This item will allow for clarification, open discussion and exploration of the service concept. The aim of this session is to allow those present to develop a better understanding of the service ideas and thereby to secure an initial calibration of the pre-existing ideas, with a view to identifying any immediate User-perspective concerns, to help form a basis for the early consideration of Service Requirements.

James Irvine will provide a top-level summary of the planned research activity, focussing upon the service requirements and demonstrator activities, where the Business User Group is expected to play an important role.

It is not proposed that the Business User Group will get involved in the detailed technology research; however, by appreciating this overall context, the Business User Group will be better positioned to advise on service definition, which will help steer the research requirements, and on the demonstrator functionality and validation, which will help ensure effective pull-through and commercialisation of the programme outcomes.

The Business User Group will provide guidance on requirements for the Instant Knowledge service, in such a way that avoids need for disclosure of any company-confidential material. Likewise, detailed research work will be managed within the Technical Steering Group, rather than the User Group. Such separation should avoid need for complex confidentiality arrangements. Walter will present an overview of these mechanisms and lead a brief discussion to determine whether it may be appropriate to establish a basic Non-Disclosure Agreement amongst the group.

Under this Agenda item a discussion, led by Nigel Jefferies, will endeavour to flesh out the detailed programme of programme activities and set dates for future meetings.