AN INCENTIVE MECHANISM FOR AD-HOC WIRELESS CONTENT SERVICE: CONTEXTUALIZED MICRO PRICING

Abstract

Sophisticated mobile wireless, net-connected devices are allowing people who do not know each other to cluster temporarily around information of mutual interest. Rheingold characterized the sociology of this brave new world of social medium as a world of "ad-hocracy". This paper aims to explore a force that can drive context-sensitive companionable relationships or activities in the "ad-hocracy" world of wireless ad-hoc networks and presents a contextualized micro-pricing mechanism for content services operating in the environment of wireless ad-hoc networks. This is a novel effective pricing mechanism that involves both value-based pricing and contextualized consideration of perishability (in terms of time, location, and urgency). This mechanism is the first attempt in adding the contextual element into pricing and is believed to encourage further exploration of pricing methods in the "ad-hocracy" world. The notion of contextualized micro-pricing is believed not only to improve mobile peers' willingness to furnish differentiated services but also to enhance the distribution of the service resources on the social medium of the wireless ad-hoc network environments.