P2Pme is a mobile social networking solution designed with major events in mind. P2Pme is an independent service uniquely designed to provide content and networking opportunities through mobile and portable devices for people attending major events. To start enjoying the services provided by the P2Pme platform, the user only has to download an application to its mobile and portable device and create a personal profile. As a member of a wireless community, users are able to communicate and share content with other event attendees. The P2Pme is an initiative supported by the eTEN program created as a new eAdministration service that dynamically enhances information distribution between the local administrations (namely town halls, Tourism departments) and the city citizens and visitors (tourist), particularly in the context of major events. The project stresses the use of peer-to-peer technology that allows each citizen to be a publisher and a consumer of information, therefore distributing among all the community participants the upload and download of information.
Policy Context
The main identified issue was the concern about the privacy of the information stored and published in the network, especially when the initiative is sponsored or promoted by public entities. In order to be compliant with the data privacy and security regulations the P2P platform was enhanced with a strong registration mechanism. In some test bed cities (eg. city of Saarbrücken, Germany) anonymous uploads, either text or photos, is not allowed. The users should at least provide their name, surname and email. After registration the users will first have to confirm their login information. After successful confirmation they can access the platform. A second strong issue is that the content of the platform must be moderated at any time. That means that the users are allowed to publish information but the information must be reviewed by the moderator or the administrator before it is published. Automoderation by the end-user community (such as the procedure used in other web2.0 portals in which end-users flags inappropriate content) seems not to be enough especially in city-promoted communities.
Description of target users and groups
Event Organisers, Sponsoring Brands.
Description of the way to implement the initiative
The platform has been tested in three test beds: - Tarrasa Outdoor Jazz Festival (March'07): The Terrassa (Spain) International Jazz Festival is a music event. Every year, for almost one month (March -April), it brings together over 250 jazz artists. During the event the P2PME platform supported a picture contest. All participants where able to take pictures, upload them and visualise, rate and comments the pictures from other participants. - Contemporary French theatre festival (June'07): a Franco-German festival is held in Saarbrücken of contemporary French theatre packed with theatre, dance and music on stage and in the street. Attendees can re-discover internationally acclaimed directors or meet new, young talents. During the event, the P2PME platform allowed festival attendees to exchange messages and comments about the different activities. - International Automobile Exhibition (December'07): is the Italian event of reference for car manufacturers, trade professionals and motoring enthusiasts and It features the latest products, innovations, conferences, meetings and races with sport personalities and champions. During the MotoShow, the P2PME platform provided services to help attendees networking, sharing images and content, access the exhibition catalogue, among other features.
Technology solution
Key system functionalities: - User management (registration, logging): Is a standard login/logout function that allows only registered users to log in to the application. - Presence: Is a function that allows users to see the presence status of other users (online, available, offline ...). - Chat: Chat messages consist of text messages and can only be sent to users who are online and have opened the chat service window. - P2P content management. Support the sharing, searching and downloading content in a P2P network with many peers. - Central CMS content management. Supports the upload, search and download of content in a central repository. - Content banning. A way to ban offensive or illegal content. - Content annotation. - Content rating: Enables end users to rate content items (1, bad – 5, excellent) - Content resolution: Is a centralised service that stores all the content IDs using a unique identifier and corresponding lists of content locations. The P2P_MajorEvents technology is based on an implementation of the P2P stack on top of the mobile terminal and the central server. For the chat, chatroom and presence the Jabber open source platform is used.
Main results, benefits and impacts
The pilot users in the three sites (Terrassa, Saarbruecken, Bologna) were a great representation of the P2P ME target end-users (technologically confident professionals) and gave us great insight on usage of our technology. Users in general like the idea: 35% liked the idea, 25% thought it was fun, 33% thought it would be useful; and would pay a small fee for the service (up to 10% of the price of the event ticket), provided that at least 50% of their friends/colleagues would be in it. The most appreciated feature is the access to event information (55%), connecting with other users (47%), instant messaging with friends (40%), alerts to programme announcements (43%). Users are aware of wi-fi and think it could solve some of the connectivity and price issues. They recommended many improvements and new services we should consider implementing, especially in terms of improved usability of the application (67%).
Return on investment
Return on investment: Not applicable / Not availableTrack record of sharing
The P2PME platform is the result of the joint efforts of the following companies that combined their unique expertise. - P.A.U. Education is a private company that provides strategic consulting and services of project management in the areas of education and social development. Our know-how in building communities is based on its own team of multilingual networkers, unique techniques for dynamization, proven experience in evaluation and capacities to develop and operate interactive platforms (using web 2.0 tools). - Atos Origin is a leading international IT services provider. We provide integrated design, build and operate solutions to large multi-national clients in carefully targeted industry sectors. ATOS ORIGIN has been in charge of the overall system integration and the design and implementation of the mobile client application. - University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the biggest university in Slovenia, UL has been in charge of designing and implementing the overall architecture of the P2PME platform based on custom made software and the integration of open source components. - PLOT 4 is a consultancy company offering a variety of services in the areas of research, brand strategy, creative briefings, digital consultancy and creative solutions. PLOT 4 has provided valuable insight on the exploitation strategies for the P2PME platform and the evaluation of the technology in different business settings.
Lessons learnt
Lesson 1 - A mobile platform that draws on the success of the Web 2.0 concept of making everyone a publisher as well as a consumer of content, promises to enhance social networking at big sports and cultural events, business congresses and trade shows. Visitors, event organisers and mobile operators all stand to benefit. P2PME platform is well positioned to benefit from this market need.
Lesson 2 - As the content is produced, shared and consumed over mobile phones, PDAs and notebook computers, users have the additional advantage of being able to upload it anywhere and access it on the fly. For visitors to a major sports or cultural event, a big trade fair or a large business conference, a P2P system allows them to know what is going on at all times, while also sharing their own experiences and keeping other users up to date. However our experience shows that market conditions have a direct impact on the technology:
- connectivity, how to deal with data services, specially in roaming situations for international visitors;
- different versions of Java per mobile operator and per manufacturer; - usability, in terms of packaging a number of functionalities and features into a simple to use mobile interface. ... and on the business plan (high price for the users, traffic costs and roaming, particularly when sharing heavy content such as large pictures and videos).
 All these needs to be carefully assessed for project deployments taking place during 2008 and 2009.
Scope: International