1         Introduction

This document provides an initial evaluation and dissemination report for the M-Zones programme. This report is in essence a summary of the outputs of the project to date. The plan is to make the next report in this series look at a scenario-based evaluation methodology that is being developed by the M-Zones team D5.2, and the final report in D5.3 to be a final summary of all outputs and the application of the scenario-based methodology to these statistics.

 

1.1        Terms and Reference

This text is extracted from the D0 M-Zones Programme Work Plan (Last updated 2004-09-03).

WP5 – Evaluation and Dissemination

The final work package of the programme will collect together the evaluation aspects of the entire programme. This is preferable to individual, per-package evaluation tasks as it allows the results of experiments to be analysed against a complete set of deliverable technologies.

Evaluation will be based around a set of scenarios – “stories” describing possible interactions with a smart space. These should be based on the common problem domain scenarios used in WP2. Each scenario will be explored using the different techniques under investigation: modelling, simulation and (where possible) implementation.

For example, one core scenario involves student interaction with a wireless teaching environment. Modelling this system allows us to locate the scalability (and other) boundaries of the system; simulation allows us to test it against varied sizes and behaviours of student populations under controllable conditions; implementation removes the predictability and provides for extra phenomena to be discovered in real life.

This work package is also responsible for the dissemination of the project results through conferences, workshops and journals as well as through submissions to key standardisation work. In addition an interactive website will be developed to support interaction between the project and other internally renowned research teams within the area of smart space management. By its nature the identification of the dissemination channels is well be carried out in real time. At the end of each year a report will be produced in the form of a deliverable indicating the dissemination activities carried out within the previous 12 months.

 

As discussed above, D5.1 is in essence a summary of the outputs of the project to date. D5.2 will be a scenario-based evaluation methodology that is being developed by the M-Zones team, and D5.3 will be a final summary of all outputs and the application of the scenario-based methodology to these outputs.