Perspectives on Negative Research Results in Pervasive Computing

Not all research leads to fruitful results; trying new ways or methods may surpass state of the art, but sometimes the hypothesis is not proven, the improvement is insignificant, or the system fails because of a design error done years ago in previous works. In a systems discipline like pervasive computing, there are many sources of errors, from hardware issues over communication channels to heterogeneous software environments. However, failure to succeed is not a failure to progress. It is essential to create platforms for sharing insights, experiences, and lessons learned when conducting research in pervasive computing so that the same mistakes are not repeated. And sometimes, a problem is a symptom of discovering new research challenges. Based on the collective input of the First International Workshop on Negative Results in Pervasive Computing (PerFail 2022), co-located with the 20th International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom 2022), this article presents a comprehensive discussion on perspectives on publishing negative results, useful failures, and lessons learned in pervasive computing.