Emotion understanding and performance during computer-supported collaboration

Individuals collaborating around and through computers benefit from receiving information that helps them understand one another, which is often termed awareness. This article explores what collaborators understand about each other’s emotions and the potential benefits for performance that might come from raising this understanding. In Experiment 1 co-located collaborators judged each other’s emotions after playing a game that required cooperative data collection and analysis. Their judgements were largely inaccurate and based on their own emotions, suggesting limited emotion understanding. Experiment 2 explored if this could be overcome by making collaborators aware of each other’s emotions. Co-located and remote collaborators played a cooperative puzzle-solving game under conditions of awareness or no awareness. Awareness was manipulated by making collaborators share their self-reported emotions during key moments of their game play. Both remote and co-located collaborators improved their performance after sharing their emotions. However, unlike co-located collaborators, remote collaborators also improved their understanding of each other’s emotions and experienced more positive affect. We conclude by discussing the content of collaborators’ emotion understanding and the probable mechanisms underlying the observed effects of being made aware of a partner’s emotions.     

Collaboration processes,outcomes, challenges and enablers of distributed clinical communities of practice

Modern healthcare's need for knowledge sharing and bridging the research–practice gap requires new forms of collaboration, in which clinicians of varying clinical and research expertise work together over geographical and organisational borders. To support such distributed communities of practice (CoPs), an understanding of their collaboration processes, outcomes, challenges and enablers is needed. The article examines these issues through a case study of a long-running CoP, the Swedish Oral Medicine Network (SOMNet). SOMNet's main form of collaboration is monthly telephone conference meetings centred on case consultations. Cases are submitted by the clinicians via a Web-based system. The methods used were interviews, observations, and a questionnaire. The work adds to previous research by studying a distributed CoP explicitly focused on supporting the transfer of scientific results from researchers to practitioners. We found that the regular meetings give a rhythm to the community. The centrality of cases means an immediate benefit for the submitter while the community is provided an authentic context for learning. SOMNet yields opportunities for help and learning for diverse expertise levels; the type of benefits is affected by the participant's degree of oral medicine knowledge and collaboration involvement. There are challenges in accommodating varying levels of expertise and encouraging those less experienced to participate. Enablers of the collaboration include the participation of experts, meeting facilitators and well-adapted ITs.     

面向集团企业的服务工作流系统架构研究

集团企业必须适应动态的业务组织方式,以响应瞬息万变的市场需求。在服务相关知识的基础上,对服务工作流进行分析和定义,并构建基于服务工作流的引擎执行框架。针对服务工作流在组合过程中的不足,对服务进行语义信息扩展,建立动态的服务调度机制。提出一种面向集团企业的服务工作流系统体系架构,为集团企业在新环境下实现按需整合业务和优化资源配置提供解决方案。最后通过具体的集团制造应用实例说明该架构的实施方法。     

Local Nodes in Global Networks: The Geography of Knowledge Flows in Biotechnology Innovation

The literature on innovation and interactive learning has tended to emphasize the importance of local networks, inter-firm collaboration and knowledge flows as the principal source of technological dynamism. More recently, however, this view has come to be challenged by other perspectives that argue for the importance of non-local knowledge flows. According to this alternative approach, truly dynamic economic regions are characterized both by dense local social interaction and knowledge circulation, as well as strong inter-regional and international connections to outside knowledge sources and partners. This paper offers an empirical examination of these issues by examining the geography of knowledge flows associated with innovation in biotechnology. We begin by reviewing the growing literature on the nature and geography of innovation in biotechnology research and the commercialization process. Then, focusing on the Canadian biotech industry, we examine the determinants of innovation (measured through patenting activity), paying particular attention to internal resources and capabilities of the firm, as well as local and global flows of knowledge and capital. Our study is based on the analysis of Statistics Canada's 1999 Survey of Biotechnology Use and Development, which covers 358 core biotechnology firms. Our findings highlight the importance of in-house technological capability and absorptive capacity as determinants of successful innovation in biotechnology firms. Furthermore, our results document the precise ways in which knowledge circulates, in both embodied and disembodied forms, both locally and globally. We also highlight the role of formal intellectual property transactions (domestic and international) in promoting knowledge flows. Although we document the importance of global networks in our findings, our results also reveal the value of local networks and specific forms of embedding. Local relational linkages are especially important when raising capital—and the expertise that comes with it—to support innovation. Nevertheless, our empirical results raise some troubling questions about the alleged pre-eminence of the local in fostering innovation.     

基于Java的Web互动软件设计与实现

文中在分析了NetMeeting、Sametime等软件不足的基础上，阐述了面向呼叫中心的Web互动软件的基本实现原理，并深入探讨了系统的具体实现及其工作模式，该系统具有零客户端、与防火墙无关、既能与传统呼叫中心集成部署，也能独立应用等鲜明特点，并成功应用在多家企业的客户服务中心项目中。     

A Multi-User 3-D Virtual Environment with Interactive Collaboration and Shared Whiteboard Technologies

A multi-user 3-D virtual environment allows remote participants to have a transparent communication as if they are communicating face-to-face. The sense of presence in such an environment can be established by representing each participant with a vivid human-like character called an avatar. We review several immersive technologies, including directional sound, eye gaze, hand gestures, lip synchronization and facial expressions, that facilitates multimodal interaction among participants in the virtual environment using speech processing and animation techniques. Interactive collaboration can be further encouraged with the ability to share and manipulate 3-D objects in the virtual environment. A shared whiteboard makes it easy for participants in the virtual environment to convey their ideas graphically. We survey various kinds of capture devices used for providing the input for the shared whiteboard. Efficient storage of the whiteboard session and precise archival at a later time bring up interesting research topics in information retrieval.     

Critic Systems – Towards Human–Computer Collaborative Problem Solving

Human–computer collaboration is extremely necessary for solving ill-structured problems and critic systems can effectively facilitate human–computer collaborative problem solving. This paper conducts a systematic study on critic systems. First, the concepts of critic systems are presented. Then, a literature review is presented on critic systems. Afterwards, a generic architecture is put forward for critic systems, with its important aspects being analyzed. Finally, two case studies are given to illustrate critic systems.     

Combining interaction and context design to support collaborative argumentation using a tool for synchronous CMC

Abstract Empirical studies and theory suggest that educational dialogue can be used to support learners in the development of reasoning, critical thinking and argumentation. This paper presents an educational design for synchronous online peer discussion that guides student dialogue in ways that lead to improved argumentation and collaborative knowledge development. This design includes a mediating interface – or tool, linked to a broader set of online educational activities – a designed local context, where the latter aims to provide conditions that support argumentation. The approach is based on collaborative working and dialogue game approaches to discussion. Preliminary findings with UK Open University students showed the argumentation process was more coherent, varied, deeper and extended when using our interaction design compared with the use of a simple unstructured interface.     

三维模型多量级协同方法研究

为提高Internet环境下基于三维模型的协同产品开发效率,提出了一种多量级协同方法.首先将三维模型转换成两种量级的轻量化模型,然后根据不同协同操作向协同者提供相应的轻量化模型.通过企业实际应用,证明该方法能显著提高基于三维模型的协同产品开发效率.     

角色化访问控制在集中监管电子信息平台中的应用

随着电子政务建设迅速的发展,资源共享及业务协同方面的应用需求急剧增加,各部门对更广泛地实现“信息共享、业务协同、共同监督”均有迫切需求。基于吉林省政府性投资项目和财政专项资金集中监管电子信息平台（以下简称集中监管电子信息平台）中资源共享、互相监督、协同工作、公示公开、共同监督的业务需要,提出一种基于角色化访问控制的有效模式,用于推动地方政府信息资源共享及业务协同工作建设。