The HotTopics of MS 2016: Real-world Solutions and Growing Ecosystems

MS 2016 organizing committee invites you to participate in the 5th edition of MS, to be held on June 27-July 2 2016, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Regular Theme of MS 2016:  Wearable Technology and Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications

Wireless and ubiquitous connectivity have enabled mobile computing and Internet access on the go as a life-enhancing and indispensable experience of modern life. More than 50 billion devices, in more than 200 device types, will likely be connected to the Internet by 2020 as integral components of a new generation of high-value application services for consumers and enterprises. API-defined mobile services have become essential ubiquitous services consumption and delivery enablers for many industries and government organizations worldwide. The 2016 IEEE International Conference on Mobile Services (MS) aims at providing an international forum that is dedicated to exploring different aspects of mobile services (from business management to computing systems, algorithms, and applications) and to promoting technological innovations in research and development of mobile services, including, but not limited to, wireless & sensor networks, mobile & wearable computing, mobile enterprise & eCommerce, ubiquitous collaborative & social services, machine-to-machine & Internet-of-things clouds, cyber-physical integration, and big data analytics for mobility-enabled services.

Mobile Services have been driving Internet innovations and transforming traditional businesses since iOS, Andriod, Windows Phone, and other mobile operating systems were introduced. We are leveraging mobile platforms such as WeChat, QQ, Facebook, Twitter, and others to analyze business opportunities, play games, conduct transactions, collaborate with team members, sell products, build relationships with e-commerce partners, create friend-circles, and manage projects as well as tasks. As an open platform, The HotTopics of the 2016 IEEE International Conference on Mobile Services (IEEE MS 2016) is created to promote real-world solutions and growing ecosystems. 

The Hot Topics of IEEE MS 2016 invites you to submit practical innovations, solutions, and case studies which include but not limited to the following tracks.

- Facebook Mobile Services; 
- Twitter Mobile Services; 
- WeChat Mobile Services; 
- QQ Mobile Services; 
- LINE Mobile Services; 
- WhatsApp Mobile Services; 
- Google Mobile Services (e.g. Google Maps, Youtube, Google+); 
- SnapChat Mobile Services; 
- Skype Mobile Services; 
- Instagram Mobile Services; 
- Innovations of Mobile Operating System (e.g. Android, iOS, Windows Phone).

The HotTopics of IEEE MS 2016 has a dedicated submission system "2016 IEEE MS - HotTopics" powered by ConfHub.com. Please choose one of the above tracks for "Main topic" when you submit your abstracts and 8-page papers. All papers will be peer-reviewed by the program committee of IEEE MS 2016.

In addition, the regular conference theme of MS 2016 is wearable technology and Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. Topics of Interest include, not limited to:

Middleware
- Mobility identity & access mechanism
- Context- and location-aware middleware
- Agent technologies in ubiquitous, wearable, and mobile services
- Messaging, media streaming, and event management middleware for mobile devices
- Mobility API integration, brokerage, and management
- Mobile backend as a service (MBaaS) and mobile app platform
- Reliability, availability, serviceability, scalability, and disaster recovery for mobile services
- Knowledge acquisition, discovery, matching, composition, and analytics for mobile services

Engineering
- Software architectures, programming framework, and operational models for mobile services
- Asset and configuration management of mobile devices
- Data management & integration for mobile services
- Big data analytics for mobility-enabled services
- Queries, transactions, and workflows in mobile services
- Performance & capacity management for mobile services
- Security & performance healthcheck for mobile services
- Service catalog, SLA, and compliance management for mobile services 
- DevOps and operations management for mobile services

User experience
- User interfaces and usability for mobile applications and services
- Multimodal interfaces (speech, video kinetic, tactile)

Applications
- IoT-enabled services & industrial transformation (e.g., connected vehicles, clinical remote monitoring, assisted living, building automation, traffic management, asset management, etc.)
- IoT-enabled management of the physical world
- Innovative mobile, ubiquitous, and wearable applications
- Mobile social networking
- Ubiquitous collaborative & social services
- Mobile Web
- Services based on ad hoc and sensor networks
- Community based computing
- Personal-area services and applications 

Cross-cutting
- Security and privacy in mobile services
- Trust models for mobile services
- Localization and tracking
- Application-level energy management for mobile devices 

The technical program of MS 2016 will include The HotTopics, a research track, an application track, a short paper track, and a collection of special tracks. The research track will highlight foundational work that strives to push beyond the limits of existing mobile services platforms and products, including experimental efforts, innovative systems and investigations that identify weaknesses in the existing mobile services models.

The MS 2016 tracks seek original, UNPUBLISHED research papers reporting substantive new work in various aspects of delivering mobile services. Track papers MUST clearly indicate their contributions to the field and properly cite related work in the field, such as those published in the proceedings of ICWS, SCC, CLOUD, SE, SERVICES, APSCC, ECOWS, and related journals including TSC, JWSR, and IJBPIM.

All submitted manuscripts will be peer-reviewed by at least 3 program committee members. Accepted and presented papers from all MS tracks will appear in the conference proceedings published by IEEE. Extended versions of selected research track papers will be invited for potential publication in the IEEE Transactions on Services Computing (TSC), International Journal of Web Services Research (JWSR), and International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management (IJBPIM). Both TSC and JWSR are indexed by SCI and EI [Link]. According to Thomson Scientific, JWSR is listed in the 2008 Journal Citation Report with an Impact Factor of 1.200. The journal ranks #47 of 99 in the Computer Science, Information Systems and ranks #37 of 86 in Computer Science, Software Engineering. TSC's Impact Factor in 2014 is 3.049.

Submitted research and applications and industry track manuscripts will be limited to 8 (IEEE Proceedings style) pages and REQUIRED to be formatted using the IEEE Proceedings template. Submitted Short Paper track manuscripts will be limited to 4 (IEEE Proceedings style) pages. Unformatted papers and papers beyond the page limit will not be reviewed. Electronic submission of manuscripts (in PDF or Word format) is required. Detailed instructions for electronic paper preparation and submission, panel proposals, tutorial proposals, workshop proposals, and review process can be found at conference site.

At least one author of each accepted paper is required to register to the conference and present the paper. One Best Paper award and one Best Student Paper award will be granted at MS 2016. The first author of the best student paper must be a full-time student.

If your paper is application or solution oriented, you can consider submitting it to MS 2016 Application Track. Manuscripts submitted to the Research Track focusing on application or solution descriptions may be recommended to the Application Track for further consideration if the session slots are available.