Collaborilla - An enhancement to the Conzilla concept browser for enabling collaboration

Outline Introduction Collaboration Realization Conclusions Information

CollaborillaAn enhancement to the Conzilla concept browser

for enabling collaboration

Thesis authorHannes Ebner

SupervisorsMatthias Palmer, NADAHercules Dalianis, DSV

Department of Computer and Systems SciencesRoyal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden

June 8, 2006

Hannes Ebner Collaborilla


IntroductionConcept BrowsingConzilla InternalsProblemsSolution

CollaborationInformationProcessesTechnologiesVersioning

RealizationComponents

ConclusionsSummaryLimitations


Outline Introduction Collaboration Realization Conclusions InformationConcept Browsing Conzilla Internals Problems Solution

Terminology

Consistent vocabulary necessary:

I ConceptRepresentation of some thing

I ContextGraph containing concepts and concept-relations

I Context-mapGraphical representation of a context

I ContentInformation linked to a concept or a concept-relation

I ComponentConcept, concept-relation, context, context-map, orcontent



What is concept browsing?

I Knowledge Management structures and filters information

I Concept browsers navigate through information structures

I Conzilla was designed to present knowledgeI Sets concepts into relationsI Makes browsing through context-maps possibleI Ties information to conceptsI Conzilla toolset includes UML



Context-maps in Conzilla



Browsing in Conzilla



Conzilla internals - a basis for collaboration

Component Information

I Stored in a file: container

I May be located in several containers

I New information expressed independently of previousinformation

Location and Identification

I No broken references: Globally unique identifiers

I Lookup procedure to resolve a URI into a URL



Problems when enabling collaboration

I Important to keep track of modificationsI Provenance Information:

Who contributed? When? Why?

I How are components published?

I How are components discovered?

I Which set of containers is relevant?

I How is a container retrieved, including dependencies?

I How should be dealt with provenance information?



Solution: Remote services infrastructure

Centralized information directory with two services:

I Remote Resolver ServiceI Holds locations of containersI Client requests the location of a container

I Remote Referrer ServiceI DependenciesI Provenance information (name, role, date, . . . )



What is expected from this solution?

Being able to...

I reference context-maps via hyperlinks

I reuse concepts and concept-relations

I extend context-maps

I add content to existing concepts, concept-relations andcontext-maps

I follow modifications (inspection of provenanceinformation)


Outline Introduction Collaboration Realization Conclusions InformationInformation Processes Technologies Versioning

Information to be published

Different types of information

I Formal - required for collaborationI Dependencies: URI to URI mappingsI Resolving: URI to URL mappings

I Informal - to present data to the userI Provencance informationI Stored in RDF (Resource Description Framework),

Conzilla’s native format



Collaborational processes

Loading a context-map

1. URIs for the context-map are requested (dependencies)

2. Original URIs of the dependencies are requested

3. URIs are resolved into locations

4. Conzilla loads all containers and shows the context-map

Publishing a context-map

1. Containers are uploaded to public storage space

2. Locations of the containers are published

3. Dependencies are registered

4. Provenance information is queried (GUI) and published



Analysis of resolving and referring technologies

Domain Name System (including Resource Records)

I Not appropriate

I Domain based, but paths (URI/URL) needed

Persistant Identifiers

I Several variations (Handle, DOI, PURL, URN)

I Conzilla uses (also) URN:PATH

Mapping of identifiers to locations seems appropriate

I How should information be stored?



Analysis of backends for the information directory

Requirements

I Backend needed to hold information

I Information storage without bigger modifications

I High level of abstraction: independency from the backend

Directory

I Database Management System (DBMS)

I Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

Remote Storage

I File Transfer Protocol, already supported

I HTTP with WebDAV (distributed authoring andversioning)



Security through versioning

Versioning of information sets

I PurposeI History of information should be availableI Malicious modifications should be undoable

I SolutionI All revisions of dataI Revisions are “locked”: no modifications possibleI Full snapshots, no differentials



Appropriate technologies

Information Directory

I Several questions:I How is the information identified?I Which type of data is to be stored?I Is versioning problematic?

I Identifiers make the difference: LDAP allows to build tree

Service

I Resolving and referring in one service

I Access through text protocol

I Java client interface for use with ConzillaI Allows changing the underlying technology (e.g. SOAP)


Outline Introduction Collaboration Realization Conclusions InformationComponents

Collaborilla infrastructure

CollaborillaService OpenLDAP server

Conzilla

<<interface>>CollaborillaAccessible

Client side

Server side


Outline Introduction Collaboration Realization Conclusions InformationSummary Limitations

Summary - What can be done?

Collaborilla service

I Containers of Conzilla components can be identified

I Containers can be loaded, location does not matter

I Redundancy of information can be avoided

I Efficient reuse of existing information

Questions can be answered now

I Information about locations is held by Collaborilla service

I Components and its dependencies are registered

I Contribution role of an other is described by provenanceinformation


Outline Introduction Collaboration Realization Conclusions InformationSummary Limitations

Limitations and Potentials

Integration into Conzilla

I Not realized yet

I Changes to class structure and user interface necessary

I Remote file storage and versioning (WebDAV)

Collaborilla

I Make protocol more efficient

I Web service



Distribution & Further Information

Collaborillahttp://collaborilla.sourceforge.net

Conzillahttp://www.conzilla.org

Knowledge Management Research Grouphttp://kmr.nada.kth.se


http://collaborilla.sourceforge.net

http://www.conzilla.org

http://kmr.nada.kth.se