1.1 Introduction

'Whenever something is modified in its configuration or behaviour by information about the user, this is personalisation.'

It is hard to imagine a much broader definition of personalisation than the one above. However, the choice is deliberate, as the subject has been clouded by many pre-conceptions and market 'hype'. This chapter explains how the use of personalisation can now be applied in four distinct ways and, by examples and comparisons, highlights some of the important benefits and business opportunities offered.

Central to personalisation is the concept of a user profile and this has received considerable attention both as a means of attracting and locking users into particular services, and as a controversial topic when concerns about personal privacy are raised. This has, consequently, been an important subject for research and some of the technology resulting from that is described here.

1.2 Success Factors

A useful everyday example that highlights why personalisation is important is the mobile telephone. To show the significance, it is necessary to examine some of the success factors involved.

It is clear that people use mobile telephones in many situations where they could use a fixed line. For example, when in an unfamiliar office environment, people will often use their mobile even if there are fixed-line telephones present on the desks. This is often because the mobile is holding a personal database of contact numbers allowing the user to make calls without looking up or keying numbers. There is also, however, a significant...