Embodiments are virtual personifications of the user in real-time distributed groupware. Many embodiments in groupware are simple abstract 2D representations such as avatars and telepointers. Although current user embodiment techniques can reveal information related to position and orientation, they show far less than what is available in a face-to-face situation, and as a result, collaboration can become more difficult. The problem addressed in this research is that it is difficult for groupware users to recognize and characterize other participants using only their embodiments. The solution explored in this thesis is to provide more information about groupware users by enriching their embodiment. This scheme encodes state and context variables as visual augmentations on the embodiment. Providing information about characteristics such as skill, expertise, and experience can be valuable for collaboration; increasing the information in visual embodiments makes it easier and more natural for collaborators to recognize and characterize others, and thus coordinate activity, simplify communication, and find collaborators.<p> Rich embodiments were tested in three separate experiments. The first experiment showed that users are able to recall a large number of variables displayed on embodiments, and are able to accurately determine the values of those variables. The second study showed that rich embodiments are useful in terms of collaboration and interaction in an actual groupware context a multiplayer game. The final study further examined information-rich embodiment in a shared drawing task, and further revealed the potential of increasing awareness using embodiment.

One way to strengthen the bond between popular applications and their online user communities is to integrate the applications with their communities, so users are able to observe and communicate with other users. The result of this integration is a Multiuser Online Application (MOA). The problem studied in this thesis is that MOA users and systems will be overloaded with information generated by large communities and complex applications. The solution investigated was to filter the amount of information delivered to users while attempting to preserve the benefits of dwelling in a MOA environment. This strategy was evaluated according to the amount of information it was capable of reducing and the effects as seen by MOA users. It was found that filtering could be used to substantially reduce the information exchanged by users while still providing users with the benefits of integrating application and community.

Groupware applications allow geographically distributed users to collaborate on shared tasks. However, it is widely recognized that groupware applications are expensive to build due to coordination services and group dynamics, neither of which is present in single-user applications. Previous collaboration transparency systems reuse existing single-user applications as a whole for collaborative work, often at the price of inflexible coordination. Previous collaboration awareness systems, on the other hand, provide reusable coordination services and multi-user widgets, but often with two weaknesses: (1) the multi-user widgets provided are special-purpose and limited in number, while no guidelines are provided for developing multi-user interface components in general; and (2) they often fail to reach the desired level of flexibility in coordination by tightly binding shared data and coordination services. In this dissertation, we propose a component-based approach to developing group- ware applications that addresses the above two problems. To address the first prob- lem, we propose a shared component model for modeling data and graphic user inter- face(GUI) components of groupware applications. As a result, the myriad of existing single-user components can be re-purposed as shared GUI or data components. An adaptation tool is developed to assist the adaptation process. To address the second problem, we propose a coordination service framework which systematically model the interaction between user, data, and coordination protocols. Due to the clean separation of data and control and the capability to dynamically "glue" them together, the framework provides reusable services such as data distribution, persistence, and adaptable consistency control. The association between data and coordination services can be dynamically changed at runtime. An Evolvable and eXtensible Environment for Collaboration (EXEC) is built to evaluate the proposed approach. In our experiments, we demonstrate two benefits of our approach: (1) a group of common groupware features adapted from existing single- user components are plugged in to extend the functionalities of the environment itself; and (2)coordination services can be dynamically attached to and detached from these shared components at different granules to support evolving collaboration needs.

Zugl.: Hagen, Univ., Diss., 2005

Konstanz, Univ., Diplomarb., 2004.

Universiẗat, Diss., 1999--Paderborn.

Centralized systems are easier to build and maintain as compared to completely distributed systems. However, distributed systems have the potential to be responsive and robust relative to centralized systems. This thesis proposes an architecture and concurrency algorithm for collaborative editing that lies between these extremes and preserves the advantages of both approaches while minimizing their shortcomings The Jupiter collaboration system at Xerox PARC uses a 2-party synchronization protocol for maintaining consistency between two users performing unconstrained edits to the document simultaneously. The primary goal of our work has been to extend this 2-party synchronization protocol to an n-way synchronization algorithm. NetEdit is a prototype collaborative editor built to demonstrate this n-way protocol. It uses a replicated architecture with the processing and data distributed across all the clients and the server. Due to replication, the response time of the local edits performed by the users is quite close to a single user editor. The clients do not need to be aware of other clients in the system since each of them synchronizes with their counterpart at the server. All communication regarding editing operations takes place through this server. As a result this system is quite scalable (linear growth) relative to distributed systems (quadratic growth) in terms of number of communication paths required as the number of clients grow. I discuss the details of this extension and illustrate it through an editing scenario. NetEdit uses groupware widgets (telepointers, and radarview) to distribute awareness information between participants. It supports completely unconstrained editing and allows late joining into a session. It does not assume any structure in terms of roles of participants or protocol for collaboration and thus allow users to form whatever protocol suits them. The results and conclusions derived from a preliminary usability study of NetEdit, discuss its efficacy. They also investigate the role of communication and its use in a groupware setting. / Master of Science

No description available.

Abstract In the turbulent time, an enterprise facing global competition must rapidly respond to change and sustain competitive advantage for survival. Workflow systems is a technology, which has the function of coordination, communication, and collaboration, to improve productivity and response time. However, the implementation of workflow systems needs much investment, but usually results in much gap between expectations and actual benefits. Therefore, it is an important issue to study the implementation of workflow system to assure the results of such investment. This research explores the influencing factors of implementing workflow systems from the organizational perspective (technology, task, people, and structure) and the process (initiation, adoption, and usage). In general, this study tries to answer the following questions: (1) What factors enable a company to initiate a workflow system? (2) What factors influence a company to adopt a workflow system? (3) What factors affect a company to use a workflow system? Based on the literature concerning implementing information system, groupware, and workflow system, this research induces the model of implementing workflow systems. After confirming this model by using case study method, this research proposes the reference model of implementing workflow systems. At the initiation phase, this research finds eight influencing factors: IT infrastructure suitable for workflow systems, human power of developing workflow systems, clear workflows, achievable objectives, top manager¡¦s knowledge and interest, user involvement in selection, size, and incentives system. At the adoption phase, six influencing factors are identified: adequate workflow systems, redesigning workflows, top manager¡¦s support, user involvement in system development, education of all users, and formalization. At the usage phase, we find six influencing factors: realized objectives, technology support, incremental implementation, top manager¡¦s usage, all users¡¦ usage, and corporate policy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1998. Graduate Programme in Computer Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-168). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ39314.