I have been giving a lot of thought to the foreground-background definitions for the qualities of mobility that I initially read at Lifeblog… Today at Lifeblog is a good piece on ubiquitous technologies and the concept of foreground/background computing.
The definitions of foreground-background computing are a great way to define the behavior of mobility and handsets – something I couldn't define in such simple terms and always ended-up with a much technical (and complex) definition. But as I give it more thought, I rather refer to such behavioral definitions as “active-passive” behavior more than foreground-background.
In any case, the concept of active-passive or foreground-background comes into play for technologies that actively interact with users in a disruptive way, making them visible to them (such as when a the phone requires attention, it becomes active). Making them hidden, at least in the case of mobility, is easier, and all we have to do is make them “quiet” while providing useful functionality such a keeping time, or quietly provide relevant information.
From my perspective, making technology truly ubiquitous is more than making them passive or into the background, and the key is about “what should happen when they become active”; this is because when they are in the inactive state, they (typically) already are dissolved into the background. The answer to ubiquitous-ness is that when technology becomes active, interactions with such must be non-intrusive, non-disruptive and natural… In other words, the goal is to make technology dissolve not only when in the background, but also when active in the foreground…
ceo