Proceedings of the ECSCW'95 Workshop on the Role of Version Control in CSCW Applications

The workshop entitled "The Role of Version Control in Computer Supported Cooperative Work Applications" was held on September 10, 1995 in Stockholm, Sweden in conjunction with the ECSCW'95 conference. Version control, the ability to manage relationships between successive instances of artifacts, organize those instances into meaningful structures, and support navigation and other operations on those structures, is an important problem in CSCW applications. It has long been recognized as a critical issue for inherently cooperative tasks such as software engineering, technical documentation, and authoring. The primary challenge for versioning in these areas is to support opportunistic, open-ended design processes requiring the preservation of historical perspectives in the design process, the reuse of previous designs, and the exploitation of alternative designs. The primary goal of this workshop was to bring together a diverse group of individuals interested in examining the role of versioning in Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Participation was encouraged from members of the research community currently investigating the versioning process in CSCW as well as application designers and developers who are familiar with the real-world requirements for versioning in CSCW. Both groups were represented at the workshop resulting in an exchange of ideas and information that helped to familiarize developers with the most recent research results in the area, and to provide researchers with an updated view of the needs and challenges faced by application developers. In preparing for this workshop, the organizers were able to build upon the results of their previous one entitled "The Workshop on Versioning in Hypertext" held in conjunction with the ECHT'94 conference. The following section of this report contains a summary in which the workshop organizers report the major results of the workshop. The summary is followed by a section that contains the position papers that were accepted to the workshop. The position papers provide more detailed information describing recent research efforts of the workshop participants as well as current challenges that are being encountered in the development of CSCW applications. A list of workshop participants is provided at the end of the report. The organizers would like to thank all of the participants for their contributions which were, of course, vital to the success of the workshop. We would also like to thank the ECSCW'95 conference organizers for providing a forum in which this workshop was possible

Helping CSCW applications succeed : the role of mediators in the context of use

Includes bibliographical references (p. [12]-[13]).by Kazuo Okamura ... [et al.]

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

The CSCW paradigm for software development

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.ComputingM. Sc. (Information Systems

Computer Supported Cooperative Work Applications for the Design of Buildings based on an integrated Building Model Management

Gegenstand der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Konzeption und prototypische Umsetzung von Techniken des Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) im Rahmen einer integrierten objektorientierten und dynamischen Bauwerksmodellverwaltung zur Unterstützung der Bauwerksplanung. Die Planung von Bauwerken ist durch einen hohen Grad an Arbeitsteiligkeit, aber auch durch eine schwache Strukturierung der ablaufenden Prozesse gekennzeichnet. Besonders durch den Unikatcharakter des Planungsgegenstands \'Bauwerk\' ergeben sich signifikante Unterschiede zum Entwurf anderer, durch Serienfertigung produzierter Industriegüter. Zunehmend wird die Planung von Bauwerken in Virtual Enterprises ausgeführt, die sich durch eine dynamische Organisationsstruktur, geographische Verteilung der Partner, schwer normierbare Informationsflüsse und eine häufig stark heterogene informationstechnische Infrastruktur auszeichnen. Zur rechnerinternen Repräsent! ation des Planungsgegenstands haben sich objektorientierte Bauwerksmodelle bewährt. Aufgrund der Veränderlichkeit der Bauwerke und deren rechnerinterner Repräsentation im Laufe des Bauwerkslebenszyklus ist eine dynamische Anpassung der Modelle unumgänglich. Derartige in Form von Taxonomien dargestellte dynamische Bauwerksmodellstrukturen können gemeinsam mit den in Instanzform vorliegenden konkreten Projektinformationen in entsprechenden Modellverwaltungssystemen (MVS) gehandhabt werden. Dabei wird aufgrund der Spezialisierung und Arbeitsteilung im Planungsprozess von einer inhaltlich verknüpften Partialmodellstruktur, die räumlich verteilt sein kann, ausgegangen. Die vorgeschlagenen Methoden zur Koordinierung der Teamarbeit in der Bauwerksplanung beruhen auf der Nutzung von CSCW–Techniken für \'Gemeinsame Informationsräume\' und \'Workgroup Computing\', die im Kontext der als Integrationsbasis fungierenden Modellverwaltungssysteme umgesetzt werden. Dazu werden die zur d! ynamischen Bauwerksmodellierung erforderlichen Metaebenenfunk! tionalitäten sowie Ansätze zur Implementierung von Modellverwaltungskernen systematisiert. Ebenso werden notwendige Basistechniken für die Realisierung von MVS untersucht und eine Architektur zur rollenspezifischen Präsentation dynamischer Modellinhalte vorgestellt. Da klassische Schichtenmodelle nicht auf die Verhältnisse in Virtual Enterprises angewendet werden können, wird eine physische Systemarchitektur mit einem zentralen Projektserver, Domänenservern und Domänenclients vorgestellt. Ebenso werden Techniken zur Sicherung des autorisierten Zugriffs sowie des Dokumentencharakters beschrieben. Zur Unterstützung der asynchronen Phasen der Kooperation wird der gemeinsame Informationsraum durch Mappingtechniken zur Propagation und Notifikation von Änderungsdaten bezüglich relevanter Modellinformationen ergänzt. Zur Unterstützung synchroner Phasen werden Techniken zur Schaffung eines gemeinsamen Kontexts durch relaxierte WYSIWIS–Präsentationen auf Basis der Modellinformationen! verbunden mit Telepresence–Techniken vorgestellt. Weiterhin werden Methoden zur Sicherung der Group–Awareness für alle Kooperationsphasen betrachtet.The thesis covers the conceptual design and the prototypical realisation of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)– techniques within the scope of an integrated, object-oriented, dynamic model management system for the support of building planning activities. The planning of buildings is characterised by a high degree of collaboration but by a weak structuring of the processes, too. Significant differences between the design of buildings and industrial goods produced by series production are implied by the uniqueness of a building. Increasingly, the planning of buildings is accomplished by Virtual Enterprises. These are characterised by a dynamic organisation structure, geographic dispersion of the involved planning experts, information flows, which are hard to standardise, and a frequently very heterogeneous information-technology infrastructure. Object oriented building models have proven to be a suitable base for! the binary representation of planning subject information. Due to the changeability of both building structures and their binary representation during the building life cycle, a dynamical adaptation of the models is indispensable. Dynamic building models, which are represented by taxonomic information, can be handled together with actual project information, which is stored in taxonomy instances within an appropriate model management system. Due to the specialisation and the division of labour in the planning process, a semantic linked but spatial distributed partial model structure is applied. The recommended methods for the coordination of teamwork in the planning process are based on the application of CSCW-techniques for \'Shared Information Spaces\' and \'Workgroup Computing\' in the context of model management systems acting as an foundation for planning information integration. The required meta level functionalities for dynamic building modelling and appropriate! implementation approaches for modelling kernels are systemat! ised. The necessary base techniques for the realisation of model management systems are explored. An architecture for the role specific presentation of dynamic model content is introduced, too. Due to the inadequacy of conventional multi-tier models for an application in Virtual Enterprises, an appropriate physical system architecture with a central project server, domain servers and domain clients is introduced. The thesis covers techniques, which ensure the authorised access to information and the authenticity of planning documents, too. For an adequate support of the asynchronous phases of collaboration, the Shared Information Space is supplied with mapping mechanisms for the propagation and user notification of changes in the relevant planning information. Synchronous collaboration can be performed by means of relaxed WYSIWIS-presentations connected with telepresence mechanisms in order to create a shared context for the planners. Furthermore, methods for the provis! ion of group-awareness for all co-operation phases are treated

Collaboration, Coordination and Computer Support: An Activity Theoretical Approach to the Design of Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Ph.D. Thesis

This thesis is written in partial satisfaction of the requirements for a Ph.D. in Computer Science performed within the Industrial Research Education Programme established between the University of Aarhus, Kommunedata and Aarhus University Hospital. The initial focus of the project was to investigate ways of supporting the extensive cooperation taking place within a hospital. The theoretical objective of this work is to apply activity theory as a theoretical foundation for CSCW research and to focus on the issue of design within CSCW

Rethinking Consistency Management in Real-time Collaborative Editing Systems

Networked computer systems offer much to support collaborative editing of shared documents among users. Increasing concurrent access to shared documents by allowing multiple users to contribute to and/or track changes to these shared documents is the goal of real-time collaborative editing systems (RTCES); yet concurrent access is either limited in existing systems that employ exclusive locking or concurrency control algorithms such as operational transformation (OT) may be employed to enable concurrent access. Unfortunately, such OT based schemes are costly with respect to communication and computation. Further, existing systems are often specialized in their functionality and require users to adopt new, unfamiliar software to enable collaboration. This research discusses our work in improving consistency management in RTCES. We have developed a set of deadlock-free multi-granular dynamic locking algorithms and data structures that maximize concurrent access to shared documents while minimizing communication cost. These algorithms provide a high level of service for concurrent access to the shared document and integrate merge-based or OT-based consistency maintenance policies locally among a subset of the users within a subsection of the document – thus reducing the communication costs in maintaining consistency. Additionally, we have developed client-server and P2P implementations of our hierarchical document management algorithms. Simulations results indicate that our approach achieves significant communication and computation cost savings. We have also developed a hierarchical reduction algorithm that can minimize the space required of RTCES, and this algorithm may be pipelined through our document tree. Further, we have developed an architecture that allows for a heterogeneous set of client editing software to connect with a heterogeneous set of server document repositories via Web services. This architecture supports our algorithms and does not require client or server technologies to be modified – thus it is able to accommodate existing, favored editing and repository tools. Finally, we have developed a prototype benchmark system of our architecture that is responsive to users’ actions and minimizes communication costs

ECSCW 2013 Adjunct Proceedings The 13th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work 21 - 25. September 2013, Paphos, Cyprus

This volume presents the adjunct proceedings of ECSCW 2013.While the proceedings published by Springer Verlag contains the core of the technical program, namely the full papers, the adjunct proceedings includes contributions on work in progress, workshops and master classes, demos and videos, the doctoral colloquium, and keynotes, thus indicating what our field may become in the future

Making Maps Available for Play: Analyzing the Design of Game Cartography Interfaces.

Maps in video games have grown into complex interactive systems alongside video games themselves. What map systems have done and currently do have not been cataloged or evaluated. We trace the history of game map interfaces from their paper-based inspiration to their current smart phone-like appearance. Read- only map interfaces enable players to consume maps, which is sufficient for wayfinding. Game cartography interfaces enable players to persistently modify maps, expanding the range of activity to support planning and coordination. We employ thematic analysis on game cartography interfaces, contributing a near-exhaustive catalog of games featuring such interfaces, a set of properties to describe and design such interfaces, a collection of play activities that relate to cartography, and a framework to identify what properties promote the activities. We expect that designers will find the contributions enable them to promote desired play experiences through game map interface design