Collaborative Applications

Dewan 290-F99 1

Collaborative Applications

Prasun Dewan

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

[email protected]:/www.cs.unc.edu/~dewan

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5.1. DEFINITION OF A COLLABORATIVE APPLICATION (GROUPWARE)

Oxford: Work jointly esp at literary or artistic production

Malone: helps people work together more effectively

Lynch et al: makes users aware they are part of a group

Wells: software and hardware for shared interactive environment

Ellis: supports groups engaged in a common task and provides an interface toshared environment

Peter & Johnson-Lenz: computer-mediated culture, intentional group processesplus supporting software

Johansen: specialized computer aids for collaborative work groups

Winograd: state of mind

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Definition

User 1 User 2Coupling

Potentially Real-Time

I/O I/O

Collaborative

Application

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Traditional Collaborative Applications

File

save

User 1 User 2

load

Mail Talk

send

User 2

receive

User 1

hi

hello

User 2User 1

hi

hello

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Views of Collaboration Systems

Problems

Issues

Disciplines

Systems: Applications and Infrastructures

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Business Management

National Collaboratory

Engineering/Design

Software Engineering

Writing

Education

Medicine

Air Traffic Control

Command and Control

Games/Casual Interaction

Any complex task!

Problems: Application Areas

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Problems: Generic Tasks

Design

Implementation

Inspection/Review

Consulting

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Problems

Issues

Disciplines


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Issues: Semantics

Session Management: How do distributed users create, destroy, join, andleave collaborative sessions?

Single-User Interface: What are the application semantics if there is a singleuser in the session?

Coupling: what feedback does a user receive in response to the input ofanother user?

Access Control: How do we ensure that users do not execute unauthorizedcommands?

Concurrency Control: How do we ensure that concurrent users do not enterinconsistent commands?

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Process Control: How do we ensure that users follow prescribed groupprocesses?

Merging: How do we merge concurrent commands entered by differentusers?

Undo/Redo: What are the semantics of undo/redo in a collaborative session?

Awareness: How are users made aware of ``out of band'' activities of theircollaborator?

Issues: Semantics (Contd.)

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Issues: Implementation

Objects: What kind of objects are used to program a collaborativeapplication?

Collaboration Awareness: Which of these objects are collaboration awareand how are these objects integrated with existing, collaboration-unawareobjects?

Layers: How are these objects arranged in layers?

Concurrency: How is the application decomposed into concurrent threads?

Distribution: How are the application objects placed in different addressspaces and hosts?

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Replication/Migration: Which of these objects are centralized and whichare replicated? Which of the centralized objects can migrate?

Real-Time Support: What kind of services are provided to ensure real-timeinteraction with tolerable jitter and latency?

Issues: Implementation (Contd.)

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Problems

Issues

Disciplines


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Computer Science Disciplines

Operating Systems

Database Management Systems

Programming Languages

User Interface Systems

Software Engineering

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Problems

Issues

Disciplines


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MUDs (Multiuser Dungeons)

DIVE (Distributed Interactive VirtualEnvironment)

Video Walls

Media Space

Hydra

MAJIC (Multi-Attendant Joint Inteface for Collaboration)

GestureCam

Shasthtra

Information Lens

Coordinator

Action Workflow

Computational Mail

Quilt

PREP

IBIS

CLARE

RTCAL (Real-Time Calendar)

Systems: Applications

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Applications (Contd)

GROVE (Group Outline Viewing Editor)

CES (Collaborative Editing System)

GroupDraw

ClearBoard

TeamWorkstation

GroupLens

IRI

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File Systems

DBMS

Lotus Notes

Coda

IPC

ISIS

Xerox's Colab

XTV, NetMeeting

Suite

Web

Rendevous

GroupKit

TeamWorkstation

Weasel, Clock

Systems: Infrastructures

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Traditional Collaborative Applications File

save

User 1 User 2

load

Mail

send

User 2

receive

Talk

hi

hello

User 2User 1 User 1

hi

hello

Implicit Comm.Artifact-based

PollingAsynchronous

Explicit Comm.Private Messages

Auto NotificationAsynchronous

Implicit Comm.Session-based

Auto NotificationSynchronous

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Implicit & Explicit Comm.Artifact-basedSession-basedSynchronous & Asynchronous

Session-based Explicit Messages

Artifact-basedPrivate Messages

Implicit Comm.Artifact-basedSession-basedSynchronous

Novel Collaborative Applications File++ Mail++ Talk++

File + Mail Talk + Mail

File + Mail + Talk

Talk + File

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Talk++

Talk++

Mail++

File++

Talk + Mail

Talk + File

Mail + File

Talk + Mail + File

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MaryJohn

MUDs: Textual Virtual Reality

Say Hi everyone

Emote smiles

Whisper “Boring” to Joe

You whisper, “Boring” to Joe

@who

Name Connect Idle Time Time

John has entered the room (hear footsteps)

You say, “Hi everyone” John says, “Hi everyone”

You smile John smiles

Look John

Move John to public place

Change John’s description

John’s textual description

Disallow John whisper

Disallow John from this room

(Wizard)

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Video Walls: Video-based Virtual Reality

Camera & Microphone

Scr

een

& S

peak

er Camera & Microphone

Room 1 Room 2

Scr

een

& S

peak

er

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Media Space

Room 2 Room 4

Map

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Hydra: Gaze Awareness

Figure originally appears in [5].

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6.1.7. MAJIC: Real-Life with Seamless User Boundaries

Figure originally appears in [36]

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Session

DIVE: Navigation- based VR

Application

User 2

User 1

User 3

User 4

Aura

Supports Unintended Collaboration

Non intrusive

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Hallway Model

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Gesture Cam: Remote Surrogate


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Gesture Cam: Architecture

Figure Originally appears in [30]

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Colab. PsyBench

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PSyBench

Psybench.gif

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Psy Bench Architecture

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In Touch

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In Touch Architecture

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6.1.9. Mail++

Talk++

Mail++

File++

Talk + Mail

Talk + File

Mail + File

Talk + Mail + File

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Information Lens: Typed Messages

Subject: ….

Type: Exam Change Notice

Semi-structured typed messages

Messages

Notices Requests

Room Change Notice

Exam Change Notice

Exam Change Request

Class Absence Request

Type Hierarchy

Joe Absence

14 Exam Change

Type-based filtering

Notices

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Notes MailCategory 1

2/24/99 Main message 1 (John Smith, responses)2/25/99 Response 1 (Mary Lowe, 1 response) 2/26/96 Response 2 (Joe Doe)

Category 22/24/96 Main message 2 (Mary Lowe, 1 response)

Doe, Joe 1. 2/26/99 Response 2 (re. Main message 1)

Lowe, Mary1. 2/24/99 Main message 2 2. 2/26/96 Response 2 (Joe Doe)

By Category

By Author

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Coordinator: Structured Conversation

Customer Producer

Request (response, completion, alert dates)

Acknowledge

Agree

Interim-Report/Cancel/New-Promise

Report-Completion

Satisfaction

Automation ofform fieldsalerts, remindersstatus information

Customer Producer

Request Agree

Satisfaction Complete

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Action Workflow

Status By Candidate Workflow Step

Manage Review

Director Manager

Director Manager

2

Schedule Interview

1 43

Director Manager

Declare Assessment

98

10 7

Manager Technical Directors

Submit Evaluation Form

56

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ATOMICMAIL: Computational Mail

Data Program

Mail Receiver

display/animate graphics gather data and mail

Lisp-based PL Single Directory Accessed File Creation Limited Mail Messages Limited

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6.1.15. File++

Talk++

Mail++

File++

Talk + Mail

Talk + File

Mail + File

Talk + Mail + File

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Quilt: Writeable Typed Hypermedia

Revisions Suggestions Public comments Private messages Other

Document

Creation time

Creator

LoggingMachine Level (Insert-Char) User-Level (Reorganized Section 2)

RolesReader < Commenter < Co-Author

TriggersAlert significant changes

Colab StylesAuthor modifies owned section Co-author modifies all Designated editor modifies all

Artifact = Document + Colab. Info.

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PREP: Zero-Cost HyperlinksMain text Alice’s

commentsBenu’scomments

Chou’scomments

Para 1

Para 2

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IBIS: Structured Issue Resolution

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

AS: Fast*P: Processor B

AS: Cheap, already in use-P: Processor C

AS: Cheap & fastAO: Will not be available in time

Resolved issue Unresolved position Argument Supporting Current position

Rejected position

Argument objecting

Artifact = Colab. Info.

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6.1.19. CLARE: Structured Discussion + Process Model

RESRA (Representation Schema of Research Artifacts)Figure originally appears in [39]

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CLARE: Structured Discussion + Process Model

SECAI (Summarization, Evaluation, Comparison, Argumentation)


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6.1.20. Talk + File

Talk++

Mail++

File++

Talk + File

Talk + Mail

Mail + File

Talk + Mail + File

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RTCAL: Real-Time Artifact Sharing

Application Commands

Regular User Chair

Conference Control Commands

join, leave get floor, release floor, terminate

Application Commands

Proposal: 10amVote: Yes

Proposal: 10amVote: No

Public Appts

Private Appts

Public Appts

Public Appts

Public Appts

Topic, Participants Chair, Controller

Topic, Participants Chair, Controller

Awareness

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GROVE: Access-Controlled Views

Outline Title 1. Readable and writeable item 1.1 Also readable and writeable *.Shared readable and writeable * .* Shared readable

User 2 User 3 User 4

Outline Title1.Readable and writeable item 1.1 Also readable and writeable 1.2 Another public item

*.* Different shared item

User 1 User 3 User 4

User 1 User 2

Independent ScrollingIncremental SharingNo Concurrency ControlUser and State Awareness Fine-grained Access Control

public, shared, private

read, write rights

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Central Host

Host 1 Host 2

CES: Delayed Commitment & Tickle Locks

Document Root

Text Node Owner User 1

Text Node Owner User 2

Sharing of Committed Results

Implicit Commit Del/CR

Tickle Locks

Version Stack

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GroupDraw: Virtual Gestures & Optimistic Locks

User 2

Implicit Locking/UnlockingOptimistic Locking

Fine-grained CC & ACUncoupled Scrollbars & PalettesCoupled Graphical Objects

User 1

Multiuser Scrollbar & Gestalt Viewer

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Pebbles: Single-Display Groupware

*

+

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6.1.25. Clearboard: Face to face Awareness

Figure available from http://ishii.www.media.mit.edu/people/ishii/CB.html.

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Clearboard: Architecture

Figure first appeared in [26]

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TeamWorkstation: Integrated Desktop & Computer Awareness

Figure available at http://ishii.www.media.mit.edu/people/ishii/TWS.html

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Editing paperxxxx yyyyy

TELE-SCREEN

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TELE-DESK

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SCREEN-OVERLAY

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DESK-OVERLAY

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SCREEN & DESK-OVERLAY


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COMPUTER-SHARING

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6.1.27. Talk + Mail

Talk++

Mail++

File++

Talk + File

Talk + Mail

Mail + File

Talk + Mail + File

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6.1.28. Mail + File

Talk++

Mail++

File++

Talk + Mail

Talk + File

Mail + File

Talk + Mail + File

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Message M

Message 1

Message 2

News: Shared Mailboxes

Send Receive

User 2 User 2

User 1

User N

User 1

User N

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News: Scaleable Architecture

News Client

News Client

News Client

eventual delivery of immutable messages

post newsNews Server

News Server

News Server

News Server

exchange news

read news

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Message/News Filtering

• Agent-based– Newsgroup– Discussion Thread– Urgent Message– Sender Cost– Strings in Messages– Message Length– Spell Checking– Included Messages

• Rating-based– Moderator– Known Reviewers– Anonymous

Reviewers

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6.1.31. Group Lens: Aggregate-based Filtering

Multiple (arbitrary) people rate message

Rating combined into one aggregate number specific to reader

Correlation coefficient - CAB:

Sum (i = 1 to n) ((Ai - Amean)* (Bi - Bmean)) --------------------------------------------- Sqrt ( (Sum (i = 1 to n) (Ai - Amean)**2) * Sum (i = 1 to n) (Bi - Bmean)**2))

Given set S of rating users, aggregate:

Sum (i = 1 to n) (Bi - Bmean)*CABi) -------------------------------------- + Amean Sum (I = 1 to n) CABi

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Group Lens

News Client

News Server

post news read news

Better Bit Bureau

send rating

post rating

Modified News Client get rating

read rating

Filterbot (Rating Agent)

read news

send rating

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Evaluating Aggregation-based Filtering

• Coverage– Measures % of time predications are available

• Statistical Accuracy– Measures how computed rating deviates from actual

rating

– Disproportionately higher weight to large deviation

• Decision Support Accuracy– Probability random “good” item rejected by system

– Probablility random “bad” item accepted by system

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Experiments

NoFilterbot

Spell Include Length

general 40, 69 43, 67 46, 70 44, 67

perl.misc 7, 65 42, 74 13, 64 13, 68

linux.announce 14, 66 46, 68 20, 61 48, 70

food.recipes 22, 61 71, 66 27, 66 42, 56

rec.humor 15, 46 50, 80 50, 72 16, 71

Coverage, Decision Making Accuracy

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Mercury: Automatic Asynchronous Error Notification

module A

export T

type T = char

User 1

Module B

import T

v: T = ‘a’

User 2

Edit T Asynchronous Error notification

Buffered Notifications

module A

export T

type T = String

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GroupDesk: Automatic Customizable Awareness Notification

Relations: Owner Events: Modification Interested Users: Alice, Benu

Relation Classes Object Classes Event Classes

Similar-to

Document

Modification

Version-of

Object

Comment Added

can establish can raise

Interest Context

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6.1.34. Talk + Mail + File

Talk++

Mail++

File++

Talk + Mail

Talk + File

Mail + File

Talk + Mail + File

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6.1.35. IRI: Distance Learning Environment

Figure available at http://www.cs.odu.edu/~tele/iri.

Documents

Collaborative Applications