Proxy Lady - Mobile Support for Opportunistic Communication

Proxy Lady is a mobile system for informal, opportunistic face-to-face communication, running on a PDA equipped with a radio transceiver. “Opportunistic communication” is anticipated by one party but it only occurs when the parties happen to meet each other. Proxy Lady supports such communication by providing notifications about possible “candidates for interaction” in the environment. The user specifies “candidates for interaction” by associating “people” with an “information item” (currently an email or a task). When “candidates for interaction” enter the proximity of the user, Proxy Lady notifies and makes the “information item” accessible. According to our fieldwork, formative evaluation sessions, and a literature survey, “opportunistic communication” is an important type of communication that has not been supported previously. This paper describes the interface and use of Proxy Lady and the results from three formative evaluation sessions of the system.