COBRA: A Constraint-Based Awareness Management Framework

The effective and efficient cooperation in communities and groups requires that the members of the community or group have adequate information about each other and the environment. In this paper, we outline the basic challenges of managing awareness information. We analyse the management of awareness information in face-to-face situations, and discuss challenges and requirements for the support of awareness management in distributed settings. Finally, after taking a look at related work, we present a simple, yet powerful framework for awareness management based on constraint pattern named COBRA

The PPPSpace: Innovative Concepts for Permanent Capturing, Persistent Storing, and Parallel Processing and Distributing Events

A b s t r a c t —Media spaces provide users w i t h flexible support for easy interaction w i t h technology and with each other, both at the s a m e place and over distance. From a t e c h n o l o g i c a

An architecture for presenting auditory awareness information in pervasive computing environments

Presented at the 12th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), London, UK, June 20-23, 2006.In this paper we present how awareness can be supported in pervasive computing environments through auditory information. We introduce an application which uses soundscapes to support people's awareness of each other's presence in an office environment. We describe several techniques for construction and control of such soundscapes. Finally, we present an architecture for designing and controlling soundscapes. The architecture is based on managers, agents, evaluators, a blackboard information storage, and a control language, it emphasizes reusability and extensibility, and it is built upon a common system framework

Understanding the meaning of awareness in Research Networks

Reinhardt, W., Mletzko, C., Sloep, P. B., & Drachsler, H. (2012). Understanding the meaning of awareness in Research Networks. In A. Moore, V. Pammer, L. Pannese, M. Prilla, K. Rajagopal, W. Reinhardt, Th. D. Ullman, & Ch. Voigt (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Awareness and Reflection in Technology Enhanced Learning. In conjunction with the 7th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning: 21st Century Learning for 21st Century Skills (ARTEL/EC-TEL 2012) (pp. 13-30). September, 18, 2012, Saarbrücken, Germany. Available online at http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-931/ . [Please see also http://hdl.handle.net/1820/4729]underpinning and description of a tool that helps researchers become aware of their research context and reflect upon i

Evaluating the Impact of Live Programming on Collaborative Software Development

Collaboration is tricky, but often beneficial in the context of numerous software related activities, from learning core concepts, to the design and implementation of large software products. The growth of online classes, from small structured seminars to massive open online courses (MOOCs), and the isolation and impoverished learning experience some students report in these, points to an urgent need for tools that support remote pair programming in a distributed educational setting. In “the real world” software developers and designers work together to solve common problems, and meaningful and effective designer-developer collaboration improves the user experience. Supporting these with today’s often distributed work model presents important challenges.Two key techniques which are believed to be effective in promoting better coordination and collaboration are collaborative coding and live programming. Collaborative coding allows all the team members to get involved in the development process, and live programming enables them to see what they are building effortlessly and in real time.In this work, we first describe Jimbo, an integrated development environment (IDE) based on collaborative and live programming techniques, and a set of user studies aimed at evaluating whether these techniques are effective in promoting better coordination and collaboration in two different settings; distance learning and design-focused software development. Our results show that these techniques can improve the learning experience through pair programming and a tight code-artifact feedback loop. We will show how collaborative coding and live programming can help designers and developers bridge their knowledge and language gaps and develop mutual understanding, allowing designers to join the development process as first-class citizens – not dependent on the coders to compile and share output – or being forced to become coders.Keywords: pair programming, collaborative learning, collaboration, educational tools, live programming, remote pair-programming, programming environment, MOOC, IDE, distance learning, designer-developer collaboration, collaborative software developmen

Representations of Vladimir Maiakovskii in the Post-Soviet Russian Literary Canon

This thesis examines the position of the most canonical of official Soviet poets, Vladimir Maiakovskii, in the post-Soviet Russian literary canon. Maiakovskii’s status in the USSR was unchallengeable due to Stalin’s endorsement of him in 1935 as ‘the best, most talented poet’ of the Soviet era. This work will assemble evidence from a range of post-1991 publications to show how Maiakovskii’s position has been affected by the wide-ranging rejection of writers strongly identified as part of official Soviet culture, and examine the extent to which he has nevertheless retained his canonical status. A central question for discussion is how the representation of Maiakovskii has changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. I analyse three different socio-cultural fields, which each have the potential to shape the literary canon: school education, literary anthologies and the public media. It is apparent that while Maiakovskii retains his canonical position, his representation has not only changed, but it also remains fluid, and several different (often contrasting) trends of representing the poet exist side by side. In each case I review how post-Soviet representations differ from the Soviet image of the poet. Taking into account the abrupt changes which the Russian literary canon went through in the 1990s and the intended target audience for each case of Maiakovskii’s representation to be investigated, I outline the reasons for these multiple versions of the poet’s life and legacy and argue how this multiplicity became possible in the first place. This work is designed to aid those who wish to have a deeper understanding of the particular position of Vladimir Maiakovskii within the contemporary canon. It also seeks to contribute to the body of research analysing the development of the Russian literary canon in the post-Soviet period.Arts and Humanities Research Counci

The Rise and Demise of the Myth of the Rus’ Land

The concept of the Rus’ Land (russkaia zemlia) became and remained an historical myth of modern Russian nationalism as the equivalent of “Russia,” but it was actually a political myth, manipulated to provide legitimacy. Its meaning was dynastic—territories ruled by a member of the Riurikid/Volodimerovich princely clan. This book traces the history of its use from the tenth to the seventeenth century, outlining its changing religious (pagan to Christian) and geographic elements (from the Dnieper River valley in Ukraine in Kievan Rus’ to Muscovy in Russia) and considers alternative “land” concepts which failed to rise to the ideological heights of the Rus’ Land. Although the Rus’ Land was never an ethnic or national concept, and never expanded its appeal beyond an elite lay and clerical audience, understanding its evolution sheds light upon the cultural and intellectual history of the medieval and early modern East Slavs

Groupware design : principles, prototypes, and systems

Computers are valuable tools for a wide range of work tasks. A substantial limitation on their value, however, is the predominant focus on enhancing the work of individuals. This fails to account for the issues of collaboration that affect almost all work. Research into computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) aims to eliminate this deficiency, but the promise of computer systems for group work has not been met. This thesis presents four design principles that promote the development of successful groupware. The principles identify the particular problems encountered by groupware, and provide guidelines and strategies to avoid, overcome, or minimise their impact. Derived from several sources, the major influence on the principles development is an investigation into the relationship between factors affecting groupware failure. They are stimulated by observations of groupware use, and by design insights arising from the development of two groupware applications and their prototypes: Mona and TELEFREEK. Mona provides conversation-based email management. Several groupware applications allow similar functionality, but the design principles result in Mona using different mechanisms to achieve its user-support. TELEFREEK provides a platform for accessing computer-supported communication and collaboration facilities. It attends to the problems of initiating interaction, and supports an adaptable and extendible set of "social awareness" assistants. TELEFREEK offers a broader range of facilities than other groupware, and avoids the use of prohibitively high-bandwidth communication networks. TELEFREEK demonstrates that much can be achieved through current and widely accessible technology. Together, Mona and TELEFREEK forcefully demonstrate the use of the design principles, and substantiate the claim of their utility