Introduction to collaborative systems and groupware - … · and groupware Nicolas Marilleau, IRD Training session on agent-based modeling, introduction to the GAMA and PAMS platforms,

Formation à la modélisation à base d'agents, introduction aux plates-formes GAMA et PAMS

Training session on agent-based modeling, introduction to the GAMA and PAMS platforms

26, 27 & 28 oct. 2009, Hanoi, Vietnam

Introduction to collaborative systems

and groupware

Nicolas Marilleau, IRD

Training session on agent-based modeling, introduction to the GAMA and PAMS platforms, IRD, UMI UMMISCO 209, MSI Team, 26, 27 & 28 oct. 2009, Hanoi, Vietnam

Collaborative work

• There is collaboration once there are

interactions between 2 entities

! collaboration is everywhere...

• The collaboration

! more and more a need of people

! capitalise knowledge, competencies, work, ...

! more and more distant

• Information and communication

technologies (ICT)

! permit to investigate software to facilitate exchanges

! creation of work group on collaborative systems

! CSCW (Computer-Supported Cooperative Work)

! TCAO (Travail Coopératif Assisté par Ordinateur)

2


Collaborative work story

3

1st stageusing existing softwares to

interact

2nd stageimproving softwares to have an

efficient collaboration

3th stageusing web technologies to

create user friendly groupwares

Word

+

RevisionWord

+Network Attached

Storage

+Network Attached

Storage


Outlines

• Collaboration overview

• Ad hoc collaborative tools

• Collaborative softwares

4




Collaboration overview


Collaborative systems

• Goal

! Mutualise competencies, resources of participants to

solve a problem

! Increase the efficiency and quality of work

• Composed of

! identified groups of actors interacting together

! tools supplying exchanges

! a work objective to realise identified tasks

• Defined by

! the nature of interactions

! the human dimension

! the space/time dimension

! exchanged data

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The nature of interactions

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Informative Negociative Collaborative Cooperative

Weak Strong



• information are given to a group

• interaction with message sender is not possible

• e.g. black board, website, ...

8

Information Negotiation Collaboration Cooperation



• Try to reach a compromise by discussion with others

! e.g. timetable establishment, ...

• Imply a centralized ordering decision making

!One person defines a working way. Every one applies it.

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• One main goal for a group of persons

• Every body

! has it own point view about the problem

and their sub goals

! tries to solve a part of the problem

• The main task is divided into several sub-

tasks achieved by few people

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• One goal for a group of persons

• Every body

! has the same point view about the problem

! tries to solve together the problem

! share the same knowledge of the system

• Members achieve the task TOGETHER

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Human dimension

• Actors are characterised by

! Competencies

! Resources (data, software, ...)

! social group they belong to

! ...

• The size of the working group

! individual work

! one person creates documents for the group

! standalone softwares

! team work (from 2 to 10 persons)

! few persons work together to solve a problem

! standalone softwares with sharing politics, videoconferencing, ...

! large scale collaborative work

! many and many people work together in different place

! mailing list, forum, social network...

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Space / Time dimension

• Space dimension

! local exchanges: group members in a same place

! distant exchanges: group members around the world

• Time dimension

! synchronous collaboration

! group members have to attend to the meeting

! e.g. audio or video conferencing

! asynchronous collaboration

! exchanges between members can be done at different time

! mail, forum, ...

• Distant interactions need a collaborative

software

13

CSCW Matrix




Ad hoc collaborative tools


Collaborative tools

• A tools designed to help people to

exchange data through the network

! formal exchanges

! informal exchanges

• Major data formats

! text

! multi-media (sound, video, document, shape, ...)

! binary files (simulators, ...)

• main used collaborative tools

! mail, instant messaging, shared calendar, directories,

FAQ...

15


File sharing

• Access to remote and shared files by using

the network

• Several kinds of services

! File server

! centralized shared storage to deposit and/or read files

! Torrent

! peer to peer

! distributed shared storage to deposit and/or read files

! CVS (Concurrent Versioning System) / SVN (Sub-

Versioning)

! keeps track of all work and all changes in a set of files

• Several protocols

! CIFS/SMB, NSF, AFP, FTP, WebDAV, BitTorrent

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emule

www.emule-project.netFilezilla

www.filezilla.fr

CyberDuck

cyberduck.ch


Workflow based software

• A workflow

! a sequence of connected steps

! a model to represent real work

! an organization of staff

! exchanges between members of the group

• Workflow based software

! leads exchanges of data between

members of the team

! dedicated to large scale collaborations

• In IRD

! scientist evaluations

! trip scheduled organization

! ...

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Desktop sharing

• Instant screen sharing

! allow remote visualisation on a person's screen

through a graphical Terminal emulator

• Remote control

! Remotely control another computer

• A simple way to collaborate

! Collaborative edition, remote simulation

! using usual software

• No privacy is possible

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http://www.yuuguu.com

www.realvnc.com/http://www.skype.com

Web tools (1/2)


• Website editors

! website design

• Forum

! online discussion site

! similar to a mailing list

• Blogs

! maintained by individual

! contains regular entries of commentaries,

descriptions of events, or other materials such as

graphics or video.

• Wiki

! allows web pages to be created and collaboratively

edited

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Asynchronous web tools

http://www.mediawiki.org

http://b2evolution.net/ http://www.over-blog.com/

http://www.phpbb.com/ http://www.developpez.com/

http://kompozer.net/http://www.adobe.com/

http://www.wikipedia.org/


Web tools (2/2)

• Collaborative editing tools

! tools

! word processor

! spreadsheet

! participants can

! create and edit documents

! import and/or export documents

! invite new participants

• Virtual whiteboard

! draw shapes in a collaborative way

! a shared board

! group members see shapes

! group members contribute to make shapes

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Synchronous web toolshttp://www.imaginationcubed.com


Voice and video solutions (1/3)

• Conferencing solutions

! bring people at different sites together for a meeting

! audio and/or video

! network

! Commuted network (analogic audio, RNIS video)

! IP network

• Peer to peer calls

• Multipoint calls

! simultaneous conferencing among three or more

remote points

! possible by means of a bridge

! IP, RNIS, Streaming, recording, document sharing, ...

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Network Ichat

PVX

Xmeeting

VLC


Voice and video solutions (2/3)

BridgeRNIS

IPIP

Streaming

MPEG

Documents

Share

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http://vacs.in2p3.fr/

Xmeeting

http://xmeeting.sourceforge.net/

VLC

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/


Videoteleconference (3/3)

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RMS modification de visioconference N°28412

------------- CONFERENCE ------------------- Titre : Test_Ummisco-- Date : 28 septembre 2009-- Heure : 10:30:00 heure locale-- Duree : 02:00:00-- Numero a appeler :---- !IP !!: 193.48.95.81---- !ISDN : +33 (0)4 26 68 73 01---- !TEL !: +33 (0)4 26 68 73 01-- Identifiant numerique : 28412 (terminer par #)-- Code PIN : 7338 (terminer par #)

----------- WEB COMPAGNON ----------------- streaming, document, chat, etc.---- !http://rms.in2p3.fr/compagnon.php?idConf=28412&identConf=7338_Test_Ummisco

------------- STREAMING ------------------- Pour suivre cette conference en streaming (RealPlayer ou QuickTime) !: ---- !rtsp://193.48.95.81/conf_h263_g711u_384000_7338_Test_Ummisco (384 Kbts/s)---- !rtsp://193.48.95.81/conf_h263_g711u_768000_7338_Test_Ummisco (768 Kbts/s)-- Code PIN : 7338

--------------- INFORMATIONS ---------------- Email du responsable de la conference mailto:[email protected] Proprietaire mailto:[email protected] Commentaires :

--------------- DOCUMENTS ---------------- http://rms.in2p3.fr/spaceConfLogin.php?conference=28412 PASSWORD : 7338

French local time

IP mode video connection

RNIS mode video connection

Conference ID and password

Flash client to listen the conference

2 streaming addresses for 2 definition

Conference owner

Document sharing


Interactive whiteboard

• An interactive whiteboard (IWB)

! a large display

! connected to a computer and a projector

• Goal

! Controlling computer’s desktop on board

! using finger or pen

! Modifying «in live» slide

• Improve video conference

! every participants (local and distant) see drawing

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Collaborative software


Collaborative software

• Supply remote interactions between members of a group

! asynchrounous and/or synchronous

• Dedicated to a domain

!web publishing, team workspace, teaching, research, simulation ...

• Composed of collaborative tools

! e.g. mail, forum, ...

! selected according to the domain

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«Collaborative software (also referred to as groupware or workgroup support systems) is software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve their goals»

Wikipedia

http://phpnuke.org/


Content management systems (1/3)

• Content Management Systems (CMS)

! dynamic web portal

! user friendly to install, configure, administrate

! set up on a web server and a database

• Contain tools to

! manage

! contents of the portal

! users, groups and roles

! support collaboration

! asynchronous and synchronous

! administrate the portal

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http://www.spip.net/en

http://www.xoops.org/

More than 180 CMS ...

http://zikula.org/

http://www.joomla.org/



• Main idea of CMS

! separating the GUI from the content

! modularity

! extends CMS features

• Content

! Stored into CMS database

• Template

! define the GUI

! Html, Xml files stored on the web server

• Web site pages generated on demand

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Web

serverCMS

Database



29

web content

calendar

Forum

internal mail

rss

Administration

…

Features


Teams workspace (1/2)

• Small scale collaborative environment

! supplies meeting

! integrates synchronous collaborative tools

! conferencing, instant messaging, whiteboard, display sharing

! a rapid way to organise meeting

• large scale virtual environment

! unified architecture

! composed of interconnected collaborative tools

! supplies every participant exchanges

! asynchronous and/or synchronous communications

! large scale team

! stores and shares team knowledge

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Lotus

Sorgho

IChat

Live meeting

http://flashmeeting.e2bn.net/


Teams workspace (2/2)

• CMS

! medium scale collaborative tools

• contain major collaborative tools

! if not, module could be developed and plugged

• user friendly

! no specific tools is needed

• low coast to

! install and to deploy

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http://www.egroupware.org/

http://www.phpgroupware.org/

http://www.joomla.org/

http://www.xoops.org/

http://www.ganesha.fr/


Learning management system

• A content management system

! dedicated to training or elearning

! automates the administration, documentation,

tracking, and reporting of training events

• CMS

• Characteristics

! Manages users, roles, instructors, students

! Course calendar

! Web-based course deposit and delivery

! Student messaging and notifications

! Assessment/testing capable of handling student pre/

post testing

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http://moodle.org/

http://sakaiproject.org/portal


The other domains

• Many and many groupwares dedicated to

other domains

• Medicine

! Teneci framework (Collaborative Tele-neurology)

! allow practitioners to prevent and/or diagnostic

deceases

! provide telecommunication technologies

• Academic bibliography software

! Bibadmin: a CMS

! manages bibliography

! generates bibtex

! Mendeley

! Indexes and organizes all PDF

! shares information, resources and experiences

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http://www.mendeley.com/


About the simulation domain ?

• 2 sub-domains

! Participative simulation

! users are the subject of the simulation

• e.g. ComMod, SelfCormas, army training (Ercis), ...

! Collaborative experimentation

! users modify simulation parameters to understand phenomena

• WBSC (Web Based Simulation Center )• Websimior, disaster simulation

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[Kobayashi & al., 2006]


The case of WebSimmior (1/2)

• Desiderata

! MIOR (MIcro ORganism)

! an agent-based Model

! reproduce micro-organism dynamics in soil

! Need of a collaborative plate-form that

! publishes the simulator on the web

! allowes the use of the simulator from the web

! composed of asynchronous collaborative tools

• content management and forum

• Solution: WebSimMior

! developing

! a portal based on an existing CMS (SPIP)

• including needed collaborative tools

! a template to define the GUI

! a module to permit netlogo simulator management

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The case of WebSimmior (2/2)

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http://www.ird.fr/websimmior/


Conclusion

• The use of collaborative softwares

! in our daily life

! a needs to achieve research project

• Many and many collaborative tools

! several of them are free

! but not major of them

• Groupware

! collaborative tools based environment

! dedicated to a domain

! build according to needs

• In modelling-simulation domain of CS

! no dedicated tools

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