Dewan 290-F99 1

Taxonomies of Collaborative ApplicationsPrasun Dewan

Department of Computer ScienceUniversity of North CarolinaCB 3175 Sitterson HallChapel Hill, NC 27599-3175

dewan@cs.unc.eduhttp:/www.cs.unc.edu/~dewan

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Why Taxonomies

• Economic expression.

• Compare/contrast

• Characterize collaboration systems– What points are covered in design space

• New systems – What points not covered

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Views of Collaboration Systems• Problems• Issues• Disciplines• Systems :

– Applications and Infrastructures

• Ensure actual needs met.• Conceptual depth, avoid

duplication.• Build on existing knowledge.• See integrated sets of features

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Other Application Taxonomies

• Ellis's Time Space

• Ellis's Common Task/Shared Environment

• VR Taxonomy

• Malone's Taxonomy

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Ellis’s Time Space Taxonomy

Email

File System

Bulletin Board

Augmented Reality

Same Time

Same Space Different Space

Grove

MUD

Tivoli

Ventura

Different Time

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Same time collaboration

• WYSIWIS as in Cognoter

• Divergent views as in Grove but immediate transmission of shared state

• Changes buffered as in Ensemble to support “think time”– Assume collaborator is waiting/polling for

response and immediately starts processing it, and does not get bored and leaves

– With multitasking this time can be greater

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RTCAL Vs Electronic Class Room

Proposal: 10am Vote: No

Public Appts

Public Appts

Topic, Participants Chair, Controller

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Ellis’s Shared Environment / Common Task Dimension

Electronic Classroom

Time Sharing Environment

Software Review System

Mail

Common Task

Sha

red

Env

iron

men

t

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IBIS vs. Talk vs. Shared File*I: Which processor should be used

?P: Processor AAS: Fast

*P: Processor BAS: Cheap, already in use

*

+

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Smith’s Dimensions

• Information Type– intangible private, ephemeral, tangible instrumental,

tangible target

• Collaboration Time– seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years

• Space: – office, floor, site, 1-hour travel, 1-day travel

• Agents– people, informal coalitions, teams, team collections

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IBIS Vs Email

Processor 2/24/99 Which one? (John Smith, responses)2/25/99 Processor A (Mary Lowe, 1 response) 2/26/96 Processor B (Joe Doe)

Meeting Time2/24/96 10am? (Mary Lowe, 1 response)

*I: Which processor should be used ?P: Processor A

AS: Fast*P: Processor B

AS: Cheap, already in use

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Malone’s Coordination TaxonomyCoordination Goal

Goal Decomposition Task Assignment Recursive Allocation Synchronization

Sequencing

1

Fac

ilit

ates

CoordinatorInformation LensRTCAL

Group Decision Making Proposing AlternativesEvaluating Alternatives

2IBIS, PREP, Quilt

Communication Transporting MessagesRouting

3email, ActionWorkflow

Perception of Common Objects4 Grove, CES, RTCAL

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Hydra vs MAJIC MUDS Vs DIVE

User 2User 3

John has entered the room (hear footsteps)

John says, “Hi everyone”

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Benford’s VE TaxonomyD

egre

e of

Art

ific

ialit

y

Degree of Transportation

• Augmented Reality

• Physical Meeting

• Telepresence

•Immersive CVEs

• Hydra • Video Walls

• Video Conference

• Shared Application & Video Conf.

•MAGIC

• Projected CVEs

• Desktop CVEs

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Concurrency Control

• RTCAL• Grove• CES • GroupDraw

• Floor Control • No Control• Tickle Locks• Optimistic Locks

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Flexible Model of CollaborationApplication

Window Version 1

User 1 User 2

Coupling

Window Version 1

Session Management

User

Merging

Undo/Redo

Awareness

CC/AC

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Design Dimensions

• Session Management

• Coupling

• Concurrency Control

• Access Control

• Undo/Redo

• Merging

• Awareness