[pt] Groupware é evolutivo e é difícil de construir e de manter, e acaba tendo um código desorganizado e difícil de evoluir. Nesta tese é proposta uma abordagem de desenvolvimento de groupware baseado em componentes concebidos em função do modelo 3C de colaboração. No modelo 3C, a colaboração é analisada a partir da comunicação, coordenação e cooperação. Na abordagem proposta, partese das necessidades de colaboração do grupo, analisadas com base no modelo, e componentes de software também organizados em função do modelo são utilizados para compor a solução. Como estudo de caso, a abordagem é aplicada no desenvolvimento da nova versão do ambiente AulaNet, cujo código padece dos problemas mencionados anteriormente. Neste estudo de caso, são desenvolvidos component kits para instanciar os serviços de comunicação do ambiente. Os componentes possibilitam compor, recompor e customizar os serviços de modo a refletir alterações na dinâmica de colaboração. / [en] Groupware is evolutionary and difficult to develop and maintain. Thus, its code becomes unstructured and difficult to evolve. In this thesis, a groupware development approach based on components organized according to the 3C collaboration model is proposed. In this model, collaboration is analyzed based on communication, coordination and cooperation. Collaboration necessities of the group, analyzed based on the 3C model, are mapped to software components, also organized according to the model, in order to compose the system. The proposed approach is applied as a case study to the development of the new version of the AulaNet environment. The environment´s code currently suffers the mentioned problems. In order to instantiate the communication services of the environment, for the case study, 3C based component kits were developed. The components allow the composition, re-composition and customization of the services in order to reflect collaboration dynamics changes.

People work together to solve a wide variety of problems using different forms of cooperation for each class of problem. Modern technology is complex, and therefore it is unusual for an individual to attempt the development of a major project single-handedly. In an attempt to provide computer-based support for the problems that arise when two or more people attempt to cooperate to perform a task or solve a problem, the area of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) becomes relevant. The software development process almost invariably involves cooperation that crosses group, professional, and subcultural boundaries. The complexity of software development demands that highly integrated groups of analysts, designers, and users are involved in the process. Many development activities may occur concurrently. The area of CSCW and advanced information technology, with its enormous capabilities for transmitting and storing information, holds considerable promise for the software development process. / Computing / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

Der vorliegende Beitrag beinhaltet eine Systematisierung web-basierter Groupware-Anwendungen, Web-Portale und Content-Management-Systeme hinsichtlich ihrer Eignung zur Unterstützung der Zusammenarbeit von räumlich verteilt arbeitenden Projektteams in virtuellen Unternehmen (VU). Die vergleichende Analyse existierender Frameworks und web-basierter Software-Lösungen bildet im @VirtU-Projekt die Basis für weitere Untersuchungen von IuKT-Plattformen und deren praktischen Einsatz. Die im @VirtU-Projekt entwickelten Module sollen in bestehende Umgebungen integriert werden, so dass mit der vorliegenden Systematisierung ein Überblick über am Markt existierende Lösungen erarbeitet wurde.

Eine Online-Community oder auch virtuelle Gemeinschaft ist ein Bereich im Internet, in der Personen sich zu bestimmten Themen treffen, sich unterhalten, sich selbst darstellen oder um zu konsumieren. Der Erfolg einer Online-Community ist durch die Usability des User Interfaces einer Online-Community nicht angemessen zu beschreiben. Daher wird in diesem Beitrag analysiert, welche weiteren Faktoren neben der Usability bei der Evaluation von Online-Communities berücksichtigt werden müssen. Online-Communities unterstützen kooperatives Verhalten, wie die Kommunikation zwischen Teilnehmern und das Arbeiten in Gruppen. Daher spielen soziale Eigenschaften der Anwendung eine zentrale Rolle. Hierzu wird das Konzept der Sociability eingeführt und es werden Kriterien abgeleitet, die bei der Bewertung von Online-Communities berücksichtigt werden sollten. Neben Usability und Sociability werden Eigenschaften der Online-Communities bewertet, die den Nutzer bei der Anwendung sowohl stimulieren als auch ihn dabei unterstützen, sich mit der Gemeinschaft zu identifizieren und ihm helfen, sich innerhalb der Umgebung seiner gewünschten Identität angemessen auszudrücken.

Knowledge Management (KM) and Business Intelligence (BI) are topics, which are receiving much currency in the literature of academia and the general media over the past several years. This thesis explores KM from the perspective of the acquisition of business intelligence inside and outside the organisation. We do this by undertaking an extensive survey of the literature in the field. This thesis provides an overview of the major concepts, approaches, and issues as well as some experiences and trends of KM, covering both organisational and technological aspects. Firstly, chapter 2 discusses various definitions of knowledge and KM as well as related terms like tacit knowledge and intellectual capital, from a philosophical, a technological and a business point of view. Secondly, chapter 3, describes the major components of KM, from a process perspective, a func- tional perspective and a technological perspective. Important processes include the setting of appropriate goals; the creation, discovery, acquisition and capture of knowledge. The chapter also describes the storage of that knowledge in knowledge repositories, the classification, re- trieval, filtering and refinement of knowledge; the transfer and use of that knowledge. Finally, the chapter ends with how organisations may undertake the assessment, conservation and main- tenance of knowledge, and states that groupware, document management systems, intelligent agents, knowledge maps and expertise profiling are examples of technologies used in KM. iii The thesis then looks at the role of asynchronous groupware in enabling and harnessing the benefits of KM. Here, the research discusses how Information Technology (IT), and specifically, synchronous and asynchronous groupware, may be integrated with KM in a drive towards cre- ating BI. Chapter 4 also studies the term `business intelligence', with specific relevance to the identification of business opportunities, and the application of the concepts of intellectual capital (IC). Chapter 5 outlines the research methodology, which includes two surveys on KM awareness and KM practices in order to gauge the level of implementation and application of KM for adding value to organisations. The research methodology also employs a case study to validate the implementation of an aspect of KM collaboration and knowledge sharing. The findings from the surveys give testament to the level of awareness and implementation of KM in best practice organisations. Chapter 7 then presents the approaches to measuring IC, and BI used by firms employing knowledge management practices to maintain their competitive advantage. In chapter 8, the researcher analyses how KM presentations and implementation in organisations may be operationalised. In chapter 9, the research presents the research model, the KM-BI model, which is the seminal objective of this thesis. The KM-BI model uses the confirmatory factor analysis procedure, Proc Calis of SAS Institute, to present a measurement model. In seeking to clarify the argument being made, a model is confirmed and discussed in terms of the transformation process from KM to BI and the subsequent competitive advantage. iv / Business Management / DBL

Résumé : Confrontées à un environnement toujours plus turbulent et compétitif et à la nécessité de s'adapter avec souplesse et agilité, les entreprises ont de plus en plus recours aux technologies et aux applications informatiques collaboratives afin de créer et de mobiliser des équipes de projet. L'objectif sous-jacent est de les rendre aussi efficaces et efficientes que possible, indépendamment du lieu et du temps de travail. Dans ce contexte, les équipiers doivent s'approprier les technologies qui sont mises à leur disposition afin de se soutenir mutuellement et d'assurer la gestion des ressources dont ils disposent, de façon à produire leurs livrables efficacement et suivant le rendement attendu. L'objectif de cette thèse de doctorat est d'analyser si l'appropriation d'une technologie virtuelle de travail contribue effectivement à soutenir le fonctionnement interne et l'efficacité d'équipes de travail à durée déterminée, ainsi qu'à analyser le rôle médiateur du fonctionnement interne entre l'appropriation d'une part, et l'efficacité d'autre part. L'appropriation renvoie ici à la mesure dans laquelle les équipiers s'entendent a) sur les modalités d'utilisation (accord sur l'usage) de la technologie collaborative de travail qu'il partage et l'environnement virtuel qu'elle constitue, b) sur l'usage qu'ils en font, c) sur le sentiment de possession (appropriation psychologique) qu'ils peuvent exprimer à son égard. La présente recherche a été réalisée grâce à l'administration d'un questionnaire d'enquête auprès d'un échantillon de 304 personnes regroupées en 34 équipes de travail à durée déterminée. Les résultats obtenus permettent de constater que deux variables, soit l'appropriation psychologique et l'accord sur l'usage, sont liées positivement aux deux dimensions du fonctionnement interne de l'équipe, à savoir au soutien interpersonnel et à la gestion du travail d'équipe. L'accord sur l'usage est de surcroît lié aux trois critères d'efficacité, soit à la qualité de l'expérience groupale, à la pérennité et au rendement. L'appropriation psychologique n'est toutefois pas liée au troisième critère, soit au rendement. L'usage est lié uniquement au soutien interpersonnel et à la qualité de l'expérience groupale, et ce, de manière négative. Par ailleurs, les tests de médiation réalisés permettent de constater que le fonctionnement interne de l'équipe semble effectivement jouer un rôle médiateur entre, d'une part, l'appropriation psychologique et l'accord sur l'usage et, d'autre part, les trois critères d'efficacité. Cette thèse de doctorat contribue de plusieurs manières au développement de la connaissance. Elle permet d'abord de constater qu'il est possible de s'approprier psychologiquement un environnement virtuel de travail, et que cette appropriation est en lien avec le fonctionnement interne et l'efficacité des équipes de travail. De plus, elle permet aussi de constater que cette variable se distingue bien d'un autre construit, soit de l'accord sur l'usage. Il s'agit à ces égards d'une première qui a permis l'élaboration d'un instrument de mesure doté de propriétés psychométriques intéressantes. Elle contribue aussi à la généralisation possible d'une conception multidimensionnelle du fonctionnement interne et de l'efficacité des équipes de travail à durée déterminée. Le constat d'un rôle médiateur du fonctionnement interne entre deux formes d'appropriation et certains des critères d'efficacité constitue aussi une observation intéressante et inédite dans le contexte de l'usage d'une technologie collaborative au sein des équipes à durée déterminée. Ce cadre de mesure semble donc pouvoir s'appliquer aussi aux équipes de projet.||Abstract : Faced with an ever changing and compétitive environment, and with the necessity of adapting with agility and rapidly, companies rely more and more on technology and Groupware to create and mobilize project teams. The underlying objective is to make them as efficient and effective as possible, regardless of the time and place that members add their collaborations. In order to collaborate in such a context and to produce their work efficiently and according to the desired outcome, team members must first appropriate the technologies that are made available to them, whose purposes are mutual support and proper management of resources. The goal of this research is to analyze if the appropriation of a virtual office contributes effectively to support the team and the efficiency of project teamwork, as well as to analyze the mediating rôle of the internai functioning between appropriation and efficiency. In this case, appropriation refers to the measure of the team members' consent a) on the consensus on appropriation of the Groupware that they will be using and the virtual environment that it constitutes, b) on actual Groupware use, c) and on psychological appropriation towards the Groupware. This research was carried out by handing out a survey to a sample of 304 people grouped into thirty-four teams working on projects with fixed terms. The results of this study indicate that the two variables, psychological appropriation and consensus on appropriation, are positively correlated to the two dimensions of the internai functioning; interpersonal support and management of work. Moreover, the consensus on appropriatio is also linked to the three criteria for efficiency: the quality of the group work experience, the durability and the output. However, there is no indication of a corrélation between the psychological appropriation and the third factor of efficiency, output. The results do indicate that actual Groupware use is negatively connected to interpersonal support and to the quality of the group work experience. Indeed, the test for the mediating rôle of the internai functioning of the group indicate that there is, in fact, a relationship between the psychological appropriation and the consensus on appropriation, and the three factors of efficiency. This doctoral thesis contributes in many ways to the development of knowledge on this topic. Firstly, there is a clear démonstration that psychological appropriation is, in fact, possible for a virtual work environment, and that this appropriation has a link with the internai functioning and efficiency of a project team. Moreover, the research also helps to demonstrate that the psychological appropriation is distinct from other variables such as consensus on approproation. Indeed, this unique factor allowed for the création of an interesting new measuring device with psychometric attributes. The research also contributes to a certain généralization of the multidimensional conception of the internai functioning and efficiency of group work. Finally, the récognition of the mediating rôle of the internai functioning between two types of appropriation and some of the efficiency criteria is both interesting and un-heard of in the context of the use of Groupware by work group with fixed terms. So, it would seem that the measurement framework could also be applied to project teams.

Computer-Support Cooperative Work (CSCW) reflects the change in emphasis from using computers to solve problems to using computers to facilitate human interactions. Most studies, however, have focused on the use of the technology rather than on the human-human interaction (HHI) in these environments due to: the varied perspectives of the investigators; and the lack of a consistent variables. Although numerous studies exist on a variety of products, only limited research has been conducted with the most prevalent of the technologies in the marketplace, Lotus Notes™. This field study, conducted using Lotus Notes™, operationalizes a model proposed, but not tested, for the study of group decision-making in CSCW environments put forth by Kraemer and Pinsonneault (1990). This study examines the use of CSCW in the group decision-making process, the participation rate for group decision-making in CSCW environments, and the criteria for determining quality in group decisions in CSCW environments. The study also proposes a new perspective for examining technology using the human context, recommends extensions for the group study framework and explores areas for future research.

Team collaboration is necessary to fully support school-age students who use assistive technology (AT). Teams should include the student, his or her family, and school professionals. Unfortunately, team collaboration is often not realized due to constraints that range from scheduling conflicts and language barriers to lack of defined roles and access to shared information. In addition, families and students are often passive participants in the educational planning process rather than active contributors. Groupware has been used in comparable areas of professional and peer collaboration to address similar barriers. The study resulted in a groupware model intended to enhance the collaboration of individualized education program (IEP) teams supporting students who use assistive technology (AT). The groupware model had a working title of CollaborAT. Through literature review, goal definition, prototyping of alternatives, panelist review and ranking of proposed attributes, and user testing, CollaborAT was be systematically designed, developed and evaluated. Through review and ranking of prototypes by a panel of 20 experts, the design phase of the study provides insight into the aspects of computer-mediated communication (CMC), content management, member profiling and scheduling supports that the intended audience values for collaboration related to AT and the IEP process. The study also provides insight into the viability of developing a groupware tool that consists of the attributes valued most by the intended audience. The CollaborAT model was built based on the design criteria established by the panel of experts. The model was presented to the panel for review and approval. With the approval criteria met, user testing was conducted with a small sample representing the target audience. The user test group consisted of 12 participants with varied IEP experience and role assignment. The user testing results provide initial evaluation data on the usability of CollaborAT. The study provides insight into the design, development and evaluation process for groupware tools. Through the application of a panel of experts, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), prototyping, and user testing, the design criteria were defined and validated. The study provides detailed information for those interested in replicating all or portions of this research-based approach for the design and development of similar products and supports.

The thesis is focused on utilization of social networking sites as a tool for virtual team collaboration support. The first goal is to identify critical success factors of virtual teamwork, which are currently not supported by groupware tools, based on description of virtual team characteristics and processes. Identified critical success factors represent the basis for the completion of next goal, which is to describe aspects of social networking sites, which are able to support the identified critical success factors. That leads to the main goal of the thesis, which consists of two main parts. First part is the analysis of social networking sites aspects influence on virtual teamwork critical success factors. The second part is the practical solution of utilization of social networking sites for virtual teamwork support. Final solution includes all social networking sites implementation phases starting from choosing the product, implementation process and ending with setting of team processes and utilization principles. Social networking sites aspects description is based on current enterprise information systems trends and the final solution results from the analysis and synthesis of findings from both previous thesis parts. The main contribution of the thesis is the solution of social networking sites utilization inside the organization and providing of practical instructions for implementation of social networking sites in order to support virtual teamwork.

Dans le domaine de l'Interaction Homme-Machine, nos travaux concernent l'interaction multiutilisateur et multimodale. Exploitant les avancées importantes en terme de modalités d'interaction, de nombreux collecticiels reposent sur une combinaison de modalités, comme les systèmes multiutilisateurs autour d'une table augmentée. Néanmoins ces systèmes constituent des réalisations ad-hoc en l'absence d'outils de conception. Face à constat, nos contributions conceptuelles et logicielles concernent la phase de spécification de l'interaction multiutilisateur et multimodale. Nous présentons une notation de spécification notée COMM (COllaborative et MultiModale) qui est une extension de CTT par l'introduction de deux concepts, le rôle interactif et la tâche modale, et par la spécialisation des opérateurs temporels, en s'appuyant sur les relations de Allen. La notation COMM est instrumentée par un éditeur logiciel de spécifications COMM, nommé e-COMM ((http://iihm.imag.fr/demo/editeur/). COMM et e-COMM ont été utilisés dans un projet DGA de taille conséquente pour spécifier l'interaction au sein d'un poste de commande de drones militaires. / Multi-user multimodal interactive systems involve multiple users that can use multiple interaction modalities. Although multi-user multimodal systems are becoming more prevalent (especially multi-user multimodal systems involving multi-touch surfaces), their design is still ad-hoc without properly keeping track of the design process. Addressing this issue of lack of design tools, our doctoral research is dedicated to the specification of multi-user multimodal interaction. The doctoral research contributions include the COMM (Collaborative and MultiModal) notation and its on-line editor for specifying multi-user multimodal interactive systems. Extending the CTT notation, the salient features of the COMM notation include the concepts of interactive role and modal task as well as a refinement of the temporal operators applied to tasks using the Allen relationships. The COMM notation and its on-line editor e-COMM (http://iihm.imag.fr/demo/editeur/) have been successfully applied to a large scale project dedicated to a multimodal military command post for the control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) by two operators.