Context Object in JAVA MapReduce

Question

What is the Use of Context context in map() method.

public void map(LongWritable key, Text value, Context context)

Answer 1

Extracted from here

In:

Map(Object key, Object value, Context context)

to allow serialization and transfer of all types of data, java defines its own writable class. These box classes like Text (for String), IntWritable (for integers), LongWritable (for long) are instances of base class Writable (for values), and instances of WritableComparable (for Keys). Context is used to collect and write the ouput into intermediate as well as final files.

Answer 2

A Context object (hence the name) as a central place to get information from the MapReduce framework. (This is exact answer I am looking for)