It is our pleasure to welcome you to the First International Conference on Mobile Computing, Applications, and Services (MobiCASE), in San Diego, California. The conference has been made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of ICST and Create-Net, whose resources and conference organization experience were instrumental in the success of the event. MobiCASE is specifically focused on application-layer research and development in mobile computing: applications, application management, and application services. Its vision is largely influenced by what we see in the consumer space today: high-end mobile phones, high-bandwidth wireless networks, novel consumer and enterprise mobile applications, scalable software infrastructures, and of course an increasingly larger user base that is moving towards an almost all-mobile lifestyle. This focus on the application layer of mobile computing is what makes MobiCASE unique and sets it apart from other venues.

The first edition of MobiCASE features a strong technical program that has been compiled under the expert guidance of our Program Chair, Thomas Phan, who, along with a strongly assembled Technical Program Committee, meticulously evaluated a large number of submitted papers. We would like to thank Thomas for his dedication in putting together this great technical program, and express our sincere gratitude to all the authors who have submitted their papers to MobiCASE. The conference would not have been possible without the expertise and the efforts of all members of the Program Committee who devoted their time to help create a high quality and focused technical program.

The MobiCASE program includes what is sure to be an excellent keynote speech by Dr. Rajit Gadh, Professor and Founding Director of the Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at UCLA. We express our sincere thanks to Dr. Gadh for accepting to relevantly contribute to the quality and the success of the event.

The conference program is also featuring a lively and informative panel discussion on challenges and advantages in adopting open source as a mobile device platform and novel server and middleware services to support cloud computing paradigms in a mobile ecosystem. This very interesting panel session has been co-organized by Angela Nicoara and Jatinder Pal Singh, whom we would like to sincerely thank for their efforts in bringing together notable panelists from industry and academia. Our thanks also go to Angela Dalton for coordinating the demo and posters session that will take place on the first day of the conference. The main conference is followed by a half-day workshop on the emerging topic of Innovative Mobile User Interactivity that has been expertly guided by Benjamin Greenstein, who deserves our thanks for that.

The numerous logistical details of the local arrangements have been diligently addressed by Yafei Yang, our Local Arrangement Chair whom we would like to sincerely thank. Alessandra Toninelli did an excellent job in keeping the world informed about the developments of the MobiCASE organization as our Web and Publicity chair and deserves our appreciation.

The staff members at ICST, Ildiko Rezmuves, Gabriella Pal, Diana Dobak, Maria Morozova , Beatrix Ransburg and Eszter Hajdu, have provided invaluable assistance throughout the organizational process. We thank them for their efforts and help. In particular, we would like to acknowledge and extend our sincere thanks to Gergely Nagy for his unfailing guidance and support in putting together the MobiCASE conference and for his patience in answering our numerous questions.

Finally, we would like to sincerely extend our gratitude to Imrich Chlamtac, our Steering Committee Chair, who has entrusted us in the challenge of starting this new conference and gave us the opportunity to have a Special Issue of the ACM Springer Mobile Networks and Applications Journal that will be featuring selected best contributions from the MobiCASE program.

We truly hope that you will enjoy MobiCASE 2009 and benefit from the accepted papers in the program. We aspire that the technical quality we put together this year will provide a strong foundation for the continuous success of this event in the years to come.

Rebecca Montanari           Petros Zerfos

This year's program is extremely strong, and the review process was very competitive and rigorous. We received submissions from many countries around the world with a high number from Europe and Asia in addition to the many from North America. Each paper received at least three independent reviews from our tireless Technical Program Committee members during the Spring of 2009, with final results coming out in July. As a result of the review process, we selected fifteen high-quality papers and complemented them with six invited submissions from leading researchers, reaching the final count of twenty-one papers in the program. The papers will be presented in multiple single-track sessions, and they cover a number of fascinating topics, including healthcare, transportation, mobile assistants, rich mobile media, and system software. Furthermore, the program includes a distinguished keynote speech and an interesting discussion panel on timely mobile application topics.

The conference could not be held without the tremendous work done by the TPC members, each of whom reviewed an average of five papers and provided in-depth critique and analysis of the submissions. Special thanks go out to the General Chairs, Rebecca Montanari and Petros Zerfos, for their unyielding efforts in putting together the conference. Additional thanks go to Guang Yang for handling the invited papers, Benjamin Greenstein for chairing the workshop, Angela Nicoara and Jatinder Pal Singh for organizing the invited panel, Angela Dalton for managing the demo/poster session, and Yafei Yang for taking care of the local arrangements.

Finally, particular thanks and appreciation must be put forth for the MobiCASE steering committee chair, Imrich Chlamtac, whose vision has steered and shaped this effort.

I hope that your experience and participation at MobiCASE 2009 is enjoyable. Have a great time, and I look forward to meeting you here in San Diego.

Thomas Phan