NSF III Workshop on Social Networks and Mobile Applications in the Cloud

Social Network, mobility and the cloud represent special and unique opportunities for synergy among several existing and emerging communities that are now often evolving in isolated silos. All three areas hold much promise for the future of computing and represent significant challenges for large scale data management. As these three areas evolve, their direct influence on significant decisions on each other becomes evident and critical. The potential for cross fertilization among these three areas of important research will drive much of the research in academia, and the products in industry. This two-day NSF workshop brings together leading researchers, practitioners, and planners to discuss and articulate interesting directions that the community should pursue in deploying large-scale mobile and social network applications in the cloud environment. The workshop includes invited talks, panels and breakout sessions.

This workshop has broader impacts across multiple segments of society as: (1) social network and mobile applications have the potential to significantly enhance productivity and quality of life;(2) the workshop produces a set of research challenges and directions that seed research projects and grant proposals that prepare and educate the next generation of researchers and students who will be critical for building the foundations of future computing, both short term in industry as well as long term in both academia and industry; and (3) the workshop widens the scope of research in each of its three main communities: social networks, mobile applications, and cloud environment, to include new aspects that evolve from integrations with the other two communities. More information on the workshop can be found at http://NSFSocialMobilityCloud.cs.umn.edu/.