Automated Capture and Access of Virtual Meetings in TeamSpace

November 14, 2001CNRC, Columbia University

Werner Geyer, Shahrokh Daijavad, Tom FrauenhoferIBM T.J. Watson Research

Heather Richter, Gregory AbowdGeorgia Institute of Technology

Ludwin Fuchs, Steven PoltrockThe Boeing Company

TeamSpace project

Tasks and work modes

Automated capture and access

TeamSpace system

Initial experiences

Agenda

Inter-Company Collaboration

TeamSpace Project

Investigate how technology can enable teams to work together effectively across time and space

Collaborative, task-oriented workspace system to support inter-company distributed teams (“Team Portal”)

Management of shared work processes and artifacts in a project

Synchronous and asynchronous team interaction

Support virtual meetings as a crucial team activity

Security infrastructures prevent collaboration: - No collaboration without communication

Different places, different companies, different cultures, different work processes: - Design implications

Work filled with rich discussions whose details are difficult to document: - Ubiquitous capture is an opportunity!

Problems and Opportunities

Boeing Studies

Team members spend the majority of their time with articulation work

Team members frequently shift between different work modes and perform different tasks

Individual mode

Meeting mode

Social mode

Work Modes

Work Modes and Tasks

Email Awareness

Conversation

Document

ReviewdocumentRevise

document

SynchronousAsynchronous

Individual: Receive email

Social: Hallway discussion

Individual:Write document sections

Meeting:Review document

Individual:Revise document

People move effortlessly from one mode to another when collocated

Fluidity

Motivation for Capture and Access

Work filled with rich discussions whose details are difficult to document and later access

Virtual meetings are a crucial communication and coordination activity of teams

Ubiquitous capture and access technologies could provide inexpensive capture of these discussions (archiving)

After a decade of research in capture and access systems, we still do not understand the impact on everyday work practices

Research Questions

What is the best way to capture meetings?

How are the users going to utilize captured information?

What are the appropriate browsing and visualization mechanisms for the captured material?

How do these differ depending on the task of the user?

Getting answers ...

... involves putting a system into real use and capture a critical mass of meetings.

User group Contextknowledge

Review horizon

Type ofinformation

Participated High Short Details

Not participated High Short Details

Long-term Significant Long Details, experts, decisions

New person Very low Long High-level, finding experts, details

Historical Very low Long High-level, decisions, rationale

Integration of Capture and Access into a collaborative teamenvironment

Using articulation objects across synchronous and asynchronous types of collaboration

Creating indices based on user interaction with these articulation objects

Benefits:

Automated documentation (archiving)

Help build relevant knowledge of past team activities

Efficient browsing of meeting records

Approach

Work Modes and Tasks

Capture and Access in TeamSpace

General meeting artifacts:

Meetings, Agendas, Action Items, Presentations, People

System Components:

Web UI:Create, view, and edit any object before, during, and after a meeting

MeetingClient:Conduct and automatically record and index distributed meetings

MeetingViewer: Review captured meeting information and use significant events to play back desired portions

Meeting- and application server

List View

Detailed View

Workspace TabsWeb UI

Calendar View

Edit a Meeting

Web UI

Search Parameters

Meeting List

Web UI

Overview Panel

Toolbar

MeetingClient

Main View

MeetingClient

MeetingViewerTimelines

Event Key

Target icon

Information Panels

MeetingViewer

Location of Playback

Event

Event type& color

Show event

MeetingViewer

System Architecture

Used for weekly meetings by TeamSpace development team

since November 2000

Cross firewall communication is difficult!

We shared information using PowerPoint

We reviewed brainstorming, presentations, and action items to some extent

Still problems in awareness of what distributed members are looking at or doing

Led to redesign of MeetingClient and Web Interface – the 2nd prototype was completed early July

Initial Usage

Firewall Firewall

Internet

Firewall Firewall

InternetInternet

SOCKS ServerSametime

Server SOCKS ClientSametimeClient

SOCKS ServerSametimeServer SOCKS ClientSametimeClient

Firewall Firewall

HTTP

Firewall Firewall

HTTP

Cross-Firewall Approaches (1)

Sametime/NetMeeting HTTP Tunneling

Firewall Firewall

TeamSpace

MeetingServer

WebServer HTTPHTTP

SOCKS SOCKS

Firewall Firewall

TeamSpace

MeetingServer

MeetingServer

WebServerWeb

Server HTTPHTTP

SOCKS SOCKS

SOCKS Server

SOCKS Client

SOCKS Server

SOCKS Client

Firewall Firewall

Internet

Firewall Firewall

Internet Internet

TeamSpace

TeamSpace

Reflector

Cross-Firewall Approaches(2)

TeamSpace Future Solution

Conclusion

Meeting capture and access needs to be integrated within the larger context of work

TeamSpace is our first attempt at such an integration Using articulation objects across synchronous and asynchronous types of

collaboration

Create indices based on user interaction with these articulation objects

TeamSpace can now serve as a platform for evaluations to understand the impact of meeting capture and access

Info

http://www.research.ibm.com/teamspace/

Publications: ACM Ubicomp, IEEE WetIce, IBM RC, …