Factors shaping the evolution of electronic documentation systems

The main goal is to prepare the space station technical and managerial structure for likely changes in the creation, capture, transfer, and utilization of knowledge. By anticipating advances, the design of Space Station Project (SSP) information systems can be tailored to facilitate a progression of increasingly sophisticated strategies as the space station evolves. Future generations of advanced information systems will use increases in power to deliver environmentally meaningful, contextually targeted, interconnected data (knowledge). The concept of a Knowledge Base Management System is emerging when the problem is focused on how information systems can perform such a conversion of raw data. Such a system would include traditional management functions for large space databases. Added artificial intelligence features might encompass co-existing knowledge representation schemes; effective control structures for deductive, plausible, and inductive reasoning; means for knowledge acquisition, refinement, and validation; explanation facilities; and dynamic human intervention. The major areas covered include: alternative knowledge representation approaches; advanced user interface capabilities; computer-supported cooperative work; the evolution of information system hardware; standardization, compatibility, and connectivity; and organizational impacts of information intensive environments

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

Distributed multimedia systems

A distributed multimedia system (DMS) is an integrated communication, computing, and information system that enables the processing, management, delivery, and presentation of synchronized multimedia information with quality-of-service guarantees. Multimedia information may include discrete media data, such as text, data, and images, and continuous media data, such as video and audio. Such a system enhances human communications by exploiting both visual and aural senses and provides the ultimate flexibility in work and entertainment, allowing one to collaborate with remote participants, view movies on demand, access on-line digital libraries from the desktop, and so forth. In this paper, we present a technical survey of a DMS. We give an overview of distributed multimedia systems, examine the fundamental concept of digital media, identify the applications, and survey the important enabling technologies.published_or_final_versio

Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate

Hawkridge, D., Ng, K., & Verjans, S. (Eds.) (2011). Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate. The 18th annual conference of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT-C 2011). September, 6-8, 2011, University of Leeds, England, UK. URI:http://repository.alt.ac.uk/2159Here are the proceedings of the 2011 ALT Conference ‘‘Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate’’. Proceedings papers report on a piece of research, possibly in its early stages, or they can be ‘‘thoughtpieces’’ which state a point of view or summarise an area of work, perhaps giving new insights. The conference has six themes: . Research and rigour: creating, marshalling and making effective use of evidence . Making things happen: systematic design, planning and implementation . Broad tents and strange bedfellows: collaborating, scavenging and sharing to increase value . At the sharp end: enabling organisations and their managers to solve business, pedagogic and technical challenges . Teachers of the future: understanding and influencing the future role and practices of teachers . Preparing for a thaw: looking ahead to a time beyond the disruptive discontinuities of the next few years. Interestingly, there were very few proposals for the conference as a whole against the sixth theme: and no proceedings papers. Perhaps the thaw is still perceived as being too far away to warrant any preparation yet!Association for learning technolog

A community environment design hypertool. Application to sustainable cities interaction regulation

International audienceThis paper develops an innovative structure of knowledge collaboration forms that allows effective and creative collaboration among the actors along territorial design process. To contribute to the development of the social dimension of the sustainable development, we investigate a new methodology and computational tools for understanding and facilitating multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural collaboration in sustainable architectural-, urban- land- and ambient-scape design, through evaluating collaboration among project developers, local authorities, architects, engineers, contractors, building inspectors, clients and future users. Therefore, this proposed integrative tool increases the pool of knowledge and skills available to undertake activities that exceed the capacities of any single person or organization on its own, thus making possible the design and construction of complex skills, especially buildings and ambiences in urban or suburban environmen