Handling Disturbance and Awareness of Concurrent Updates in a Collaborative Editor

International audienceWhen people work collaboratively on a shared document, they have two contradictory requirements on their editors that may affect the efficiency of their work. On the one hand, they would like to know what other people are currently doing on a particular part of the document. On the other hand, they would like to focus their attention on their own current work, with as little disturbance from the concurrent activities as possible. We present some features that help the user handle disturbance and awareness of concurrent updates. While collabora-tively editing a shared document with other people, a user can create a focus region. The user can concentrate on the work in the region without being interfered with the concurrent updates of the other people. Occasionally, the user can preview the concurrent updates and select a number of these updates to be integrated into the local copy. We have implemented a collaborative editing subsystem in the GNU Emacs 5 text editor with the described features

The Individual, Network, and Collaborative Competencies, and Investment in Strategic Partnership as Antecedents of the Overall Performance of a Supply Chain Network

The prime objective of the current study is to examine the individual, network, and collaborative competencies, and investment in strategic partnership as antecedents of the overall performance of a supply chain network. Additionally, the study has examined the mediating role of collaborative awareness. In this research, the influence of competencies at individual and organizational level has been identified on the practices and performance of supply chain management. The current study has expanded the competencies by studying it at firm level in the management of supply chain. It has been revealed through research findings that collaborative awareness is positively influenced by organizational awareness, which is the individual level competency. The study is among the pioneering studies on the issues. So, current study has used SEM-PLS as statistical tool to answer the research questions raised in this study and research objectives envisaged in the current study. The findings of the current study have provided support to with the hypothesized results. This study will be helpful for policymakers and researchers in examining the link the individual, network, and collaborative competencies, and investment in strategic partnership as antecedents of the overall performance of a supply chain network

A Collaborative Software Infrastructure based on the High Level Architecture and XML

A study is made of using the High Level Architecture (HLA) as foundation for distributed applications in the domain of Computer-Supported Collaborative Work. A plug-in, peer-to-peer infrastructure for such applications is proposed, aimed at facilitating development and management of collaborative software. Users of the framework collaborate in groups and sessions, described by a replicated state XML information model. A prototype infrastructure is developed, along with three prototype collaborative applications. Results of performance testing show that a transport system built on HLA compares reasonably well with a socket-based transport system. On the whole, results demonstrate feasibility of the infrastructure and of the objective of extending the HLA to non-simulation applications. Future work to adapt full-scale applications to the collaborative infrastructure is invited

Development and Specification of Virtual Environments

This thesis concerns the issues involved in the development of virtual environments (VEs). VEs are more than virtual reality. We identify four main characteristics of them: graphical interaction, multimodality, interface agents, and multi-user. These characteristics are illustrated with an overview of different classes of VE-like applications, and a number of state-of-the-art VEs. To further define the topic of research, we propose a general framework for VE systems development, in which we identify five major classes of development tools: methodology, guidelines, design specification, analysis, and development environments. Of each, we give an overview of existing best practices

Collaborating through sounds: audio-only interaction with diagrams

PhDThe widening spectrum of interaction contexts and users’ needs continues to expose the limitations of the Graphical User Interface. But despite the benefits of sound in everyday activities and considerable progress in Auditory Display research, audio remains under-explored in Human- Computer Interaction (HCI). This thesis seeks to contribute to unveiling the potential of using audio in HCI by building on and extending current research on how we interact with and through the auditory modality. Its central premise is that audio, by itself, can effectively support collaborative interaction with diagrammatically represented information. Before exploring audio-only collaborative interaction, two preliminary questions are raised; first, how to translate a given diagram to an alternative form that can be accessed in audio; and second, how to support audio-only interaction with diagrams through the resulting form. An analysis of diagrams that emphasises their properties as external representations is used to address the first question. This analysis informs the design of a multiple perspective hierarchybased model that captures modality-independent features of a diagram when translating it into an audio accessible form. Two user studies then address the second question by examining the feasibility of the developed model to support the activities of inspecting, constructing and editing diagrams in audio. The developed model is then deployed in a collaborative lab-based context. A third study explores audio-only collaboration by examining pairs of participants who use audio as the sole means to communicate, access and edit shared diagrams. The channels through which audio is delivered to the workspace are controlled, and the effect on the dynamics of the collaborations is investigated. Results show that pairs of participants are able to collaboratively construct diagrams through sounds. Additionally, the presence or absence of audio in the workspace, and the way in which collaborators chose to work with audio were found to impact patterns of collaborative organisation, awareness of contribution to shared tasks and exchange of workspace awareness information. This work contributes to the areas of Auditory Display and HCI by providing empirically grounded evidence of how the auditory modality can be used to support individual and collaborative interaction with diagrams.Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. (MERS

Process models in design and development

© 2017 The Author(s) Many models of the design and development process have been published over the years, representing it for different purposes and from different points of view. This article contributes an organising framework that clarifies the topology of the literature on these models and thereby relates the main perspectives that have been developed. The main categories of model are introduced. Their contexts, advantages, and limitations are considered through discussion of selected examples. It is demonstrated that the framework integrates coverage of earlier reviews and as such provides a new perspective on the literature. Finally, key characteristics of design and development process models are discussed considering their applications in practice, and opportunities for further research are suggested. Overall, the article should aid researchers in positioning new models and new modelling approaches in relation to state-of-the-art. It may also be of interest to practitioners and educators seeking an overview of developments in this area

Supporting awareness in heterogeneous collaboration environments

Rapid technological advancements have made it possible for humans to collaborate as never before. However demands of group work necessitate distributed collaboration in very heterogeneous environments. Heterogeneity as in various applications, platforms, hardware and communication infrastructure. User mobility, lack of availability and cost often make imposing a common collaboration environment infeasible. Awareness is essential for successful collaboration. Awareness is a key design criterion in groupware but often collaboration occurs with applications not designed to support useful awareness. This dissertation deals with the issue of effective group awareness support in heterogeneous environments.;Awareness propagation is effective if the appropriate amount of information, relevant to the user\u27s sphere of activity is delivered in a timely, unobtrusive fashion. Thus issues such as information overload, and distraction have to be addressed. Furthermore ability to establish the appropriate balance between awareness and privacy is essential. Enhanced forms of awareness such as intersubjectivity and historical awareness are often invaluable. Heterogeneous environments significantly impact the above quality factors impeding effective awareness propagation. Users are unable to tailor the quality of awareness received.;Heterogeneity issues that affect awareness quality are identified. An awareness framework is proposed that binds various sources of awareness information. However for effective awareness support, physical integration must be augmented by information integration. As a solution, an awareness model is proposed. Specification of the awareness model and framework\u27s architecture and features is the key contribution. The proposed model has been validated through simulations of realistic collaboration involving human participation. Scenarios created, have tested the model\u27s usefulness in enhancing the quality of group work by propagating effective awareness among users. To accomplish the same, an Awareness Simulator application has been created. In the validation process, efforts made to create an experimental methodology revealed some techniques related to awareness evaluation in CSCW, which are proposed. Various issues required to successfully engineer such awareness frameworks are identified and their impact on requirements such as security and performance, discussed. With various standards and technologies that can be harnessed to create awareness frameworks, there is great promise that barriers in heterogeneous collaboration environments can be overcome

CIRA annual report FY 2016/2017

Reporting period April 1, 2016-March 31, 2017

Enhancing Cyber-Resiliency of DER-based SmartGrid: A Survey

The rapid development of information and communications technology has enabled the use of digital-controlled and software-driven distributed energy resources (DERs) to improve the flexibility and efficiency of power supply, and support grid operations. However, this evolution also exposes geographically-dispersed DERs to cyber threats, including hardware and software vulnerabilities, communication issues, and personnel errors, etc. Therefore, enhancing the cyber-resiliency of DER-based smart grid - the ability to survive successful cyber intrusions - is becoming increasingly vital and has garnered significant attention from both industry and academia. In this survey, we aim to provide a systematical and comprehensive review regarding the cyber-resiliency enhancement (CRE) of DER-based smart grid. Firstly, an integrated threat modeling method is tailored for the hierarchical DER-based smart grid with special emphasis on vulnerability identification and impact analysis. Then, the defense-in-depth strategies encompassing prevention, detection, mitigation, and recovery are comprehensively surveyed, systematically classified, and rigorously compared. A CRE framework is subsequently proposed to incorporate the five key resiliency enablers. Finally, challenges and future directions are discussed in details. The overall aim of this survey is to demonstrate the development trend of CRE methods and motivate further efforts to improve the cyber-resiliency of DER-based smart grid.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid for Publication Consideratio