As large displays become more affordable, researchers investigate their productivity impacts and try to develop techniques for making the large display user experience more effective. Studies show that large displays enable users to create and manage more windows and engage in more complex multitasking behavior. Although recent work demonstrates significant productivity benefits of large shared displays, it shows numerous usability issues because current software design is not scaling well. Therefore, we took steps towards developing two user interface design guidelines for large shared displays. Specifically, empirical studies have been conducted to compare the effects of large shared display and personal display use. When each of them is used as a secondary display, large shared displays impose increased interruption and comprehension. Empirical and qualitative studies are designed to develop two user interface design guidelines for large shared displays. We designed a system called SuperTrack that uses a large shared display and the proposed guidelines to further enhance team efficiency and productivity in collaborative software development environments. Finally, an in-situ evaluation assesses the benefits of SuperTrack. Results show that exposing software development team members to a large shared display through SuperTrack leads to more communication among the members and improved group awareness — leading to increased productivity and efficiency. / Master of Science

As large displays become more affordable, researchers investigate their effects on productivity and try to develop techniques for making the large display user experience more effective. Recent work has demonstrated significant productivity benefits, but has also identified numerous usability issues with current software design not scaling well. Studies show that large displays enable users to create and manage more windows, as well as to engage in more complex multitasking behavior. In this thesis, we developed some user interface design guidelines for large shared displays. Specifically, empirical studies to compare the effects of using large shared displays against personal displays when each of them is used as a secondary display are presented, showing that large shared display impose higher interruption and comprehension to the user. Empirical and qualitative studies are designed to develop two user interface design guidelines for large shared displays. We designed a system called SuperTrack that uses LSD along with the guidelines to further enhance and improve team efficiency and productivity in collaborative software development environments. Finally, an in-situ evaluation assesses the benefits of SuperTrack based on our developed design guidelines in terms of improving software development efficiency and productivity. Results show that by exposing software development team members to a large shared display, a system that follows our developed user interface guidelines leads to higher communication among the team members and improved group awareness, leading to higher productivity and efficiency. / Master of Science

Ambientes virtuais colaborativos de composição musical têm apresentado expressivo crescimento, acompanhando a tendência de disponibilização de serviços de apoio a atividades colaborativas na Internet. Tais plataformas fornecem um meio para que pessoas possam compartilhar uma experiência musical em conjunto remotamente. A atividade de composição musical, entretanto, é influenciada por diversos fatores subjetivos de origem pessoal, social e cultural; e encontrar pessoas com objetivos convergentes para colaborar em uma criação musical em conjunto têm se demonstrado como uma tarefa complexa e desgastante. Neste contexto, esta dissertação apresenta uma forma automatizada para aproximar pessoas com objetivos e preferências musicais compatíveis para colaborar entre si. Utilizando técnicas da área de sistemas de recomendação, este trabalho propõe uma abordagem híbrida de recomendação de parceiros – baseada em filtragem colaborativa e por conteúdo –, em ambientes colaborativos de composição musical. Ao longo deste trabalho, os principais conceitos e características da abordagem são apresentados, assim como um roteiro de sua implantação em um sistema real, o CODES – um ambiente de suporte à prototipação musical voltado à leigos. / Collaborative environments for musical composition have grown significantly lately, following the current tendency of providing services that support cooperative activities on the Internet. Such platforms provide a common way for people to share a musical experience remotely. However, the music composition activity is influenced by subjective factors of personal, social and cultural backgrounds. And the task of finding people with the same goals to collaborate with on a musical creation has been shown very complex and overwhelming. In this context, this dissertation explores an automated approach to approximate people with compatible objectives and musical preferences to compose together. Using techniques from the recommender systems’ area, it proposes a hybrid approach, based both on collaborative filtering and content-based recommendation, for recommending partners in collaborative environments for musical composition. Throughout this work, the key concepts, principles and characteristics of the approach are presented, as well as the details of its implementation in CODES, a real environment to support music creation by novices.

Ambientes virtuais colaborativos de composição musical têm apresentado expressivo crescimento, acompanhando a tendência de disponibilização de serviços de apoio a atividades colaborativas na Internet. Tais plataformas fornecem um meio para que pessoas possam compartilhar uma experiência musical em conjunto remotamente. A atividade de composição musical, entretanto, é influenciada por diversos fatores subjetivos de origem pessoal, social e cultural; e encontrar pessoas com objetivos convergentes para colaborar em uma criação musical em conjunto têm se demonstrado como uma tarefa complexa e desgastante. Neste contexto, esta dissertação apresenta uma forma automatizada para aproximar pessoas com objetivos e preferências musicais compatíveis para colaborar entre si. Utilizando técnicas da área de sistemas de recomendação, este trabalho propõe uma abordagem híbrida de recomendação de parceiros – baseada em filtragem colaborativa e por conteúdo –, em ambientes colaborativos de composição musical. Ao longo deste trabalho, os principais conceitos e características da abordagem são apresentados, assim como um roteiro de sua implantação em um sistema real, o CODES – um ambiente de suporte à prototipação musical voltado à leigos. / Collaborative environments for musical composition have grown significantly lately, following the current tendency of providing services that support cooperative activities on the Internet. Such platforms provide a common way for people to share a musical experience remotely. However, the music composition activity is influenced by subjective factors of personal, social and cultural backgrounds. And the task of finding people with the same goals to collaborate with on a musical creation has been shown very complex and overwhelming. In this context, this dissertation explores an automated approach to approximate people with compatible objectives and musical preferences to compose together. Using techniques from the recommender systems’ area, it proposes a hybrid approach, based both on collaborative filtering and content-based recommendation, for recommending partners in collaborative environments for musical composition. Throughout this work, the key concepts, principles and characteristics of the approach are presented, as well as the details of its implementation in CODES, a real environment to support music creation by novices.

Ambientes virtuais colaborativos de composição musical têm apresentado expressivo crescimento, acompanhando a tendência de disponibilização de serviços de apoio a atividades colaborativas na Internet. Tais plataformas fornecem um meio para que pessoas possam compartilhar uma experiência musical em conjunto remotamente. A atividade de composição musical, entretanto, é influenciada por diversos fatores subjetivos de origem pessoal, social e cultural; e encontrar pessoas com objetivos convergentes para colaborar em uma criação musical em conjunto têm se demonstrado como uma tarefa complexa e desgastante. Neste contexto, esta dissertação apresenta uma forma automatizada para aproximar pessoas com objetivos e preferências musicais compatíveis para colaborar entre si. Utilizando técnicas da área de sistemas de recomendação, este trabalho propõe uma abordagem híbrida de recomendação de parceiros – baseada em filtragem colaborativa e por conteúdo –, em ambientes colaborativos de composição musical. Ao longo deste trabalho, os principais conceitos e características da abordagem são apresentados, assim como um roteiro de sua implantação em um sistema real, o CODES – um ambiente de suporte à prototipação musical voltado à leigos. / Collaborative environments for musical composition have grown significantly lately, following the current tendency of providing services that support cooperative activities on the Internet. Such platforms provide a common way for people to share a musical experience remotely. However, the music composition activity is influenced by subjective factors of personal, social and cultural backgrounds. And the task of finding people with the same goals to collaborate with on a musical creation has been shown very complex and overwhelming. In this context, this dissertation explores an automated approach to approximate people with compatible objectives and musical preferences to compose together. Using techniques from the recommender systems’ area, it proposes a hybrid approach, based both on collaborative filtering and content-based recommendation, for recommending partners in collaborative environments for musical composition. Throughout this work, the key concepts, principles and characteristics of the approach are presented, as well as the details of its implementation in CODES, a real environment to support music creation by novices.

A realização de videoconferências sem o uso de equipamentos que possuam tecnologia proprietária ou sem o uso de redes não comerciais (como a Internet 2) ou com características não comuns (como o protocolo Multicast) tem se revelado um desafio para os estudiosos do assunto. Este trabalho apresenta uma proposta de solução desse problema demonstrando que é possível estabelecer-se uma videoconferência entre muitas salas sobre a Internet 1, com qualidade de serviço, usando equipamentos comerciais comuns de informática e sem sobrecarga da rede. Para isso, por intermédio da integração de duas tecnologias grid (AccessGrid e Grid Delivery), são propostas as bases de uma nova versão de Access Grid, chamado MPAG (MultiPeer Access Grid). / The development of videoconferencing without the use of equipments with customized technology or without commercial networks (like Internet 2) or without common characteristics (as Multicast, for instance) has appeared as a challenge to the subject researchers. This work presents a proposal of solution to this problem, showing that is possible to create a videoconference between many rooms under the Internet 1, with quality of service, using common commercial computing equipments and without overloading the network. For this, two technologies of grid (AccessGrid and Grid Delivery) have been integrated, proposing the basis of a new version of Access Grid, called MPAG (MultiPeer Access Grid).

<p>Research in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) has identified a gap - the, so called, social-technical gap - between the wide range of human social interactions that CSCW ideally should support and what current technology actually does support. At the same time recent work in cognitive science and CSCW has begun to elucidate the multifarious roles that the body plays in cognitive processes as well as many forms of social interaction, e.g. gestures, pointing, eye-contact and bodily mimicry. The aim of this dissertation has been to analyse to what degree different aspects of embodied social interaction are supported by different types of synchronous, remote location CSCW technology, and to develop recommendations for future development concerning aspects of embodiment. For this purpose, a number of crucial aspects of embodied social interaction have been identified and about twenty CSCW systems - both research prototypes and commercial systems - have been analysed with respects to how well they support these different aspects. The analysis shows that most CSCW systems only support a very limited range of aspects of embodied social interaction.</p>

Several dancers travel to different cities as their careers performing ballets for audiences nationally and internationally. However, their constant travelling does not allow the dancers to gain a sense of place or form a connection with the cities they visit. The objective of this practicum project is to address this issue by producing an ideal environment that is designed for the dancers needs. This will be achieved by analyzing the role of interior design by proposing a Short Term Residence for Travelling Dance Professionals visiting the city of Winnipeg. The design project is a new typology where dancers coming to Winnipeg have the opportunity to stay in one location that will provide housing, dance rehearsal space, and most importantly an opportunity for collaboration and creative synergy to occur. The theories I will investigate are, the Significance of Place and Community, Collaborative Social Environments, and Performance and the Body in Space.

Several dancers travel to different cities as their careers performing ballets for audiences nationally and internationally. However, their constant travelling does not allow the dancers to gain a sense of place or form a connection with the cities they visit. The objective of this practicum project is to address this issue by producing an ideal environment that is designed for the dancers needs. This will be achieved by analyzing the role of interior design by proposing a Short Term Residence for Travelling Dance Professionals visiting the city of Winnipeg. The design project is a new typology where dancers coming to Winnipeg have the opportunity to stay in one location that will provide housing, dance rehearsal space, and most importantly an opportunity for collaboration and creative synergy to occur. The theories I will investigate are, the Significance of Place and Community, Collaborative Social Environments, and Performance and the Body in Space.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-23T14:33:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao de Eleu Lima Natalli.pdf: 2837468 bytes, checksum: 93c38f6e42dec337f7fe7f909c57adab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A Web oferece uma oportunidade inédita de promover a integração de pessoas para a realização de atividades de qualquer natureza, seja para o trabalho, para o lazer ou para o estudo. Com isto vê-se crescer a demanda por novas aplicações colaborativas. Neste contexto vimos surgir uma classe de aplicações denominada de Ambientes Colaborativos. Embora muito se tenha avançado com o surgimento de ambientes de propósito geral, onde os AVAs e CMSs se destacam, tem-se observado que estes nem sempre se ajustam às necessidade e preferências de grupos específicos. É portanto desejável a oferta de facilitadores para criação de propostas inovadoras. Nesse trabalho, é apresentado um framework para o desenvolvimento de ambientes pertencentes a esta classe de aplicações. O objetivo da proposta é facilitar o processo de construção deste gênero de ambientes, promovendo artefatos facilitadores para uso, segundo a abordagem do Modelo 3C de colaboração. A proposta foi construída a partir da etodologia Hot-Spot Driven Design acoplados com boas práticas da Engenharia de Software, além de utilizar os conceitos de Unidade de Produção Intelectual (UPI) e Veículos de comunicação (Vcom) para modelagem dos espaços de colaboração, propostos no projeto MOrFEu. Por fim, o trabalho também apresenta um protótipo do framework proposto, como forma de materializar os conceitos descritos e realçar a viabilidade da proposta, criando-se um conjunto de ambientes colaborativos / The Web offers an unprecedented opportunity to promote the integration of persons to perform activities of any nature, whether for work, for leisure or for study. With this one sees growing demand for new collaborative applications. In this context we have seen an emerging class of applications called Collaborative Environments. Although much progress has been made with the emergence of general-purpose environments, where VLEs and CMSs stand out, it has been observed that these do not always fit the needs and preferences of specific groups. It is therefore desirable to offer facilitators for creating innovative proposals. In this work, we present a framework for the development of environments of this class of applications. The aim of the proposal is to facilitate the process of building this kind of environments, promoting artifacts facilitators to use, according to the approach of the 3C collaboration model. The proposal was built on the methodology Hot-Spot-Driven Design coupled with best practices of software engineering, in addition to using the concepts of Intellectual Production Unit (UPI) and communication vehicle (Vcom) for modeling collaborative spaces proposed in the MOrFEu project. Finally, the work also presents a prototype of the proposed framework as a way of materializing the concepts described and enhance the viability of the proposal, creating a set of collaborative environments