基于Web服务的协同CASE工具设计

为CASE工具提供协同功能的重要性显而易见.但现有系统功能的实现不是使用ad-hoc的方法就是使用一个特定的群件工具箱,这使得应用程序缺少可扩展性和灵活性.使用Web Service技术及其协议提出一种开发CASE工具的新途径,以解决以上问题.为满足协同工作的完整需求,系统还包括一个版本控制机制和群体意识功能组件.简要介绍这种基于Web Service的体系结构并对核心的设计和实现议题进行描述.     

Efficient peerGroup management in JXTA-Overlay P2P system for developing groupware tools

With the fast development of IT technologies, virtual organizations are more and more present in the current collaborative work and learning activity. For instance, many subjects in virtual distance learning are organized as online groups of students, who use groupware tools to complete their learning tasks. In this paper, we address the efficient management of peer groups in JXTA-based P2P systems as a key issue in many P2P applications that use peer group as a unit such as for remote execution of tasks in parallel and distributed applications. From this perspective, we consider peer grouping as the basis in the development of groupware tools in P2P systems.     

协同编著系统中多媒体群件的研究

多媒体群件是使计算机支持的协同工作更接近于人类自然协同工作的重要手段，文章给出了协同编著系统中多媒体群件的概念，分析了协同编著文档的格式通用化及多媒体化的方法，设计了实时协同编著时语音讨论的系统结构，并对其工作原理及主要功能进行了讨论。     

Collaborative technologies in knowledge telework: an exploratory study

Abstract.  Knowledge workers in distributed work environments require substantial communication with colleagues and supervisors to perform their work activities, and collaborative technologies, like groupware, continue to improve the potential for such communication. This study investigates how an improvement in collaborative technology among a group of knowledge teleworkers impacts their communication patterns. The study focuses on one communication-based work process: knowledge sharing. The research involves a 6-month exploratory longitudinal case study of a group of teleworkers where a new groupware technology was implemented. The results indicate that while there are fewer instances of communication among group members after the technology is implemented, communication becomes more centralized around the district manager. These results suggest that increased collaborative technologies result in an adjustment between explicit and tacit knowledge sharing, as the availability of a centralized and updateable database reduces workgroup communications. However, consistent with structuration theory, telework group members do use communication technologies to address their most apparent needs and concerns. Other potential explanations and implications of these findings are discussed.     

Identification and use of guidelines for the design of computer supported collaborative writing tools

As groupware and workflow technologies become widely accepted, it is important to identify and clarify best practice at all stages of the development of those systems. One approach to the promulgation of best practice is to develop clear and effective guidelines for application in system development.This paper is primarily concerned with the identification of guidelines to drive the design and implementation of one class of groupware — collaborative writing systems. In particular, consideration is given to guidelines for systems which support groups of distributed collaborating authors working asynchronously.Three relevant areas are investigated. First, social and integration issues of generic groupware are presented. Second, the design of existing collaborative writing tools is addressed. Third, models of both individual writers and collaborative writing tasks are discussed. Guidelines are drawn from each area.The guidelines have been adopted in the design of MILO, a collaborative writing system. MILO is briefly described and the way in which the guidelines have been implemented in MILO is reviewed. In conclusion, insights gained from informal observations of MILO in use for both single and multiple author tasks are presented.     

Social activity indicators for groupware

Suppose you're a member of a few development teams, working with people who are geographically dispersed. You're using distributed groupware to work with your team mates. How do you decide when to work on a project and when to ignore requests to work on a project, when there are enough users on the groupware system to bother using it, who is available to answer a question, and which applications should get the most real estate on your screen? To help answer these questions, distributed groupware systems must indicate something about the social world they represent-who is on the system and what they are doing. User interfaces for groupware (or computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) applications) must therefore convey social information. It's energizing to know, for example, that your team mates are busy working away on a project. And it's nice to know when your friends or colleagues are available on a chat system. You might not need to know the semantics of the messages or documents involved, just that some activity is occurring. This is true for systems used by work groups as well as those used by an organization or a community of users. We think such social indicators should be a standard part of the CSCW user interface. On the basis of social psychology theory, we believe that a class of social indicator, which we call social activity indicators, is a simple, powerful way to improve user-interface functionality. Furthermore, social activity indicators are easy to build     

Collaborative Problem Solving and Groupware for Software Development

When a group is working together toward a common goal, communication and collaboration are key. This is especially true in software development where a project of any significance involves groups of people. Collaborative problem-solving techniques and groupware technology can be a boon to software development because they enhance communication and cooperation. This article examines how software development is affected by collaborative problem solving and decision making, groupware theory and tools, and group cognition and psychology. It also analyzes collaboration tools and their correlation to problem solving and group characteristics.     

Integration of collaboration and interaction analysis mechanisms in a concern-based architecture for groupware systems

Collaboration and interaction analysis allows for the characterization and study of the collaborative work performed by the users of a groupware system. The results of the analyzed processes allow problems in users’ collaborative work and shortcomings in the functionalities of the groupware system to be identified. Therefore, automating collaboration and interaction analysis enables users’ work to be assessed and groupware system support and behavior to be improved. This article proposes a concern-based architecture to be used by groupware developers as a guide to the integration of analysis subsystems into groupware systems. This architecture was followed to design the COLLECE groupware system, which supports collaborative programming practices and integrates an analysis subsystem that assesses different aspects of the work carried out by the programmers and adapts the functionality of the system under specific conditions.     

Voice Loops as Coordination Aids in Space Shuttle Mission Control

Voice loops, an auditory groupware technology, are essential coordination support tools for experienced practitioners in domains such as air traffic management, aircraft carrier operations and space shuttle mission control. They support synchronous communication on multiple channels among groups of people who are spatially distributed. In this paper, we suggest reasons for why the voice loop system is a successful medium for supporting coordination in space shuttle mission control based on over 130 hours of direct observation. Voice loops allow practitioners to listen in on relevant communications without disrupting their own activities or the activities of others. In addition, the voice loop system is structured around the mission control organization, and therefore directly supports the demands of the domain. By understanding how voice loops meet the particular demands of the mission control environment, insight can be gained for the design of groupware tools to support cooperative activity in other event-driven domains.     

Developing a groupware-based prototype to support geomatics production management

Digital map and chart providers are under increasing pressure to bring their original and updated products to market in shorter time frames than ever before. As the contract production model has come to play an increasingly significant role in digital mapping and charting programs, workflow processes and production tasks have at least been extended, if not redefined. At the same time, through the refinement and integration of groupware tools and Intranet/Extranet software, applications of computer-supported cooperative work have emerged in support of both project-driven research and corporate information management. The Geographical Engineering Group at University of New Brunswick has undertaken a program of research to: (1) investigate the applicability of groupware and database technologies to support collaborative geomatics production in networked environments; (2) develop Extranet-based prototypes; and (3) evaluate the effects of these prototypes on project management and organizational culture. A summary of the results from the preliminary works is presented in this paper. Focus has been placed on the collaboration prototype developed in terms of quality control inspection project in mapping and charting productions. The paper concludes with a discussion of key design and implementation issues.     

Empirical Study on Collaborative Writing: What Do Co-authors Do, Use, and Like?

How do people work when they are collaborating to write a document? What kind of tools do they use and, in particular, do they resort to groupware for this task? Forty-one people filled out a questionnaire placed on the World Wide Web. In spite of the existence of specialized collaborative writing tools, most respondents reported using individual word processors and email as their main tools for writing joint documents. Respondents noted the importance of functions such as change tracking, version control, and synchronous work for collaborative writing tools. This study also confirmed the great variability that exists between collaborative writing projects, whether it be group membership, management, writing strategy, or scheduling issues.     

CSCW系统中协作感知技术的研究

在ＣＳＣＷ系统中，协作感知是多用户协同工作的基础。如何向用户提供有效的协作感知是设计实时群件系统接口的关键技术之一。     

Post-mechanistic groupware primitives: rhythms,boundaries and containers

We are exploring a middle path bridging two prevailing but polar opposite approaches to groupware: (1) mechanism—making groups work through the use of explicit forms and procedures; and (2) context or open space—allowing groups to self-organize. A group is a living system, and its work is a creative, dynamic process. Appropriate forms come and go. Computer-supported groups need groupware that provides more than procedural mechanisms and open space. They need groupware that can be tailored for their changing needs and evolving purposes. Life is organized in rhythms, boundaries and containers. Using tailorable groupware of our own design, we have implemented post-mechanistic groupware primitives that bridge the prevailing approaches to groupware in six steps: open space (context), timing, rhythms, boundaries, containers and procedures (mechanism). In the laboratory of our on-line learning community, we tailor the groupware to support the purpose and flow of a variety of educational activities. In the years ahead, nearly all organizations will be affected by rapid and fundamental change. Those that thrive will be in a state of continuous, accelerated learning regardless of their purpose. We believe that the educational principles of purpose-centered groupware explored here potentially apply to any computer-supported group work. As the virtual reflection of developing society, purpose-centered groupware is an essential part of the necessary transition to a vital, sustainable culture.     

Building KidPad: an application for children's collaborative storytelling

Collaborating in small groups can be beneficial to children's learning and socializing. However, there is currently little computer support for children's collaborative activities. This was our motivation for building KidPad, a collaborative storytelling tool for children. KidPad provides children with drawing, typing, and hyperlinking capabilities in a large, two-dimensional canvas. It supports collaboration by accepting input from multiple mice. In building KidPad, we developed solutions to problems common to all single-display groupware applications for children: using an intuitive user interface metaphor that can support collaboration, and obtaining input from multiple devices. We addressed the need for an appropriate user interface metaphor by using the local tools metaphor. In developing the concept of local tools we learned about the importance of addressing the issue of global modes. Our solution for obtaining input from multiple devices was MID, an architecture written in Java. In building MID, we learned about the importance of building flexible architectures that can support a wide range of applications and devices in a consistent manner, and that are easy to extend and use by programmers. This paper describes our work on local tools and MID in the context of building KidPad, and aims to provide developers with valuable insights into how to develop collaborative applications for children. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interface-defining a metaphor for group work

An overview of investigations on computer-supported cooperative work is presented. It is argued that the only way to achieve the next evolutionary stage of groupware, software that supports the interactive work of groups, is to understand how computers and groups fit into an organization. Linking and awareness, two coordination functions central to groupware, are discussed. The Perspective Wall, an interface for representing the large amount of information required to coordinate group work in an intuitive, perceptual framework, is described     

TaKo: Providing transparent collaboration on single-user applications

The conversion of legacy single-user applications into collaborative multi-user tools is a recurrent topic in groupware scenarios. Many recent literature works have tried to achieve transparent collaboration, which consists of enabling collaborative features without modifying the original application source code.In this paper, we define the available whitebox and blackbox models of transparent collaboration. Each of them differs on which degree the developer must have of the target application inner knowledge, in order to convert it into a multi-user tool. Moreover, we propose and define a novel blackbox model and its implementation (TaKo). Our proposal achieves complete transparency by intercepting user interface libraries and input events. This is the first blackbox solution constructed on top of interception technologies (Aspect Oriented Programming) and, unlike previous approaches, it provides support to both AWT and Swing applications. Our solution solves five important problems: simultaneous work, management of replicated resources (random number generators), collaborative services binding, detailed group awareness information, late joining, and unanticipated sharing support. We are also researching a prospective work on wide-area collaboration scenarios by using a peer-to-peer event substrate. Finally, this work provides validation of TaKo with several Swing-based and AWT-based tools, demonstrating that it is generic and imposes very low overhead.     

TheEvolve project: Component-based tailorability for CSCW applications

Tailorability is generally regarded as a key property of groupware systems owing to the dynamics and differentiation of cooperative work. This article investigates the use of software components as a generic architectural concept for designing tailorable groupware applications. First, the issues raised by this approach are discussed in the context of an exploratory experiment during which component-based tailorability was applied to a real tailoring problem in thePoliTeam project. The experiment's results led us to concentrate on questions concerning the support of distributed CSCW applications. As a consequence, we have developed theEvolve platform, whose design concepts are described. Furthermore, a concrete example for the application of the approach to the design of a tailorable distributed coordination tool is given. We discuss related work, summarise the current state of the component-based tailorability approach and propose venues of further research.     

The employability of older workers as teleworkers: An appraisal of issues and an empirical study

The aging of the population and, concomitantly, of the workforce has a number of important implications for governments, businesses, and workers. In this article, we examine the prospects for the employability of older workers as home‐based teleworkers. This alternative work could accommodate many of the needs and preferences of older workers and at the same time benefit organizations. However, before telework can be considered a viable work option for many older workers there are a number of issues to consider, including the ability of older workers to adapt to the technological demands that are typically associated with telework jobs and managerial attitudes about older workers and about telework. Through an integrated examination of these and other issues, our goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the challenges associated with employing older workers as teleworkers. We also present findings from a questionnaire study that assessed managers' perceptions of worker attributes desirable for telework and how older workers compare to younger workers on these attributes. The sample included 314 managers with varying degrees of managerial experience from a large variety of companies in the United States. The results presented a mixed picture with respect to the employability of older workers as teleworkers, and strongly suggested that less experienced managers would be more resistant to hiring older people as teleworkers. We conclude with a number of recommendations for improving the prospects for employment of older workers for this type of work arrangement. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.