Demonstrations
CSCW 96 will feature live and interactive demonstrations of noteworthy
applications, technologies, research prototypes, and products. Developers will
be on hand to discuss their systems. A reception will be held from
6:30 to 7:30 Tuesday evening in the demo area hallway.
For a less detailed listing without abstracts, see:
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/cscw96/prog/tueprog.html#demos
- In the William Dawes Room:
-
Iris -- An Environment for Supporting Collaborative Writing
in Wide Area Networks
-
Michael Koch
(kochm@informatik.tu-muenchen.de),
Institute für Informatik, TU München
This demonstration presents an environment designed for supporting
the collaborative editing of multimedia and hypermedia
documents. One basic concept of the environment
is its usability in wide area networks and with mobile
computers. In contrast to the existing repository solutions
designed for wide area networks this environment allows
a seamless transition between asynchronous and synchronous
work if the network connection is up. Additional
features are the possibility to integrate standard
editor applications and its availability for different platforms.
-
Collaborative Survey Polls on the World Wide Web
-
Richard Frankosky
(frankosky@subsys.ENET.dec.com)
and Trudi Leone,
Digital Equipment Corp.
Digital AltaVista Forum is an Internet groupware application.
AltaVista Forum supports collaborative information sharing and
conferencing for workgroups. It is intended to be used by project
teams and groups which regularly share information in the form
of documents, threaded discussions, filtered news feeds and mail.
A search engine allows content-based and keyword retrieval.
-
Room with a View
-
Ted Selker
(selker@almaden.ibm.com)
and Jeff Allison,
Almaden Research Center
The desktop metaphor demonstrates the utility of spatial separation
of tasks. Room With a View (RWAV) extends the metaphor to make
greater use of three dimensional spatial layouts and gestures.
This demo introduces our multi-surface user interface metaphor.
Surfaces, such as walls, shelves and tables, are projected with
icons of books, files, etc. These icons represent information
and other interactive media. Documents or drawings are displayed
on a high resolution active blackboard, or on hand-held clipboard-sized
interaction surfaces called viewboards. The user moves around
the information space by gesturing with viewboards or blackboard
chalk. RWAV's goal is to improve interaction with large amounts
of spatially organized information.
-
Getting TAPPED IN-to Teacher Professional Development Activities:
An On-line Conference Center for Communities of Practice
-
Mark Schlager
(Mark_Schlager@qm.sri.com),
Patricia Schank, and Richard Godard,
SRI International
Current educational applications of Internet technology only peripherally
reflect characteristics of communities of practice. They
provide few of the tools, communication channels, and contextual
supports needed to elicit the kinds of cognitive and social interactions
that are characteristic of successful collaborative work, and
therefore provide limited insights into how to achieve sustainable
on-line teacher communities. SRI and several K-12 teacher professional
development (TPD) providers are jointly developing a new
vision of on-line TPD activities in a place where
teachers with diverse interests, skills, and backgrounds can meet
and learn from one another; be exposed to different education
reform concepts and approaches; and find quality resources in
minutes rather than hours. To demonstrate that more can be done
to support this vision, we developed the Teacher Professional
Development Institute (TAPPED IN), a platform-independent multi-user
virtual environment (MUVE) that integrates synchronous and asynchronous
communication, document sharing, and discourse-support objects
in a venue patterned after a real-world conference center.
-
Microsoft NetMeeting
-
Deborah Dubrow
(debdu@microsoft.com),
Microsoft Corp.
Microsoft NetMeeting enables people to work together on the Internet
or a corporate Intranet. NetMeeting 1.0 includes multipoint application
sharing,
whiteboarding, chat and file transfer and point-to-point audio. The product
is based upon existing industry standards and interoperates with
other standards based products.
Common uses of NetMeeting include casual communication between
colleagues, working together to review a document or solve a problem,
delivering presentations and demonstrations, conducting distributed team
meetings, product support, and chatting with people over the Internet.
-
Collaboratory Builder's Environment and Corona
-
Robert W. Hall, Jang Ho Lee, Hyong Sop Shim, Farnam Jahanian,
Terry Weymouth, and Atul Prakash
(aprakash@eecs.umich.edu),
Software Systems Research Laboratory,
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
Unversity of Michigan
The Collaboratory Builder's Environment (CBE) provides a Java-based
framework for open distributed collaboration over the Internet.
This demonstration will introduce both the software architecture
for supporting collaboration and the underlying Java-based Corona
Communication Services that support applet group communication.
It shows how DistView-based group-aware Java applets can be downloaded
from a page to provide shared workspaces. Participants can also
organize their shared workspaces into "rooms" by downloading
a session manager. Rooms are entities to which participants can
dynamically add/delete new URLs or collaborative applets. Rooms
provide persistence of state, so that asynchronous collaboration
can be supported. Also, we illustrate that work can be dynamically
moved between different rooms and between a private workspace
and a shared room. The demo explains the relationship between
operations on rooms and the basic inter-process communication
primitives used in group-aware applets. In addition, it shows
the user-extensibility of the software architecture. The demo
also illustrates some of the group communication and awareness
features supported by the Corona Communication Service.
-
Marmot: Internet Publishing and Remote Collaboration
-
Elizabeth G. Hetzler
(eg_hetzler@pnl.gov),
Alan E. Turner, and Barbara J. Cheney,
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Marmot empowers distributed groups to control their remote
shared information and work collaboratively, using a cross-platform
graphical user interaction client. It is designed to be very simple
to use, requiring no knowledge of Internet protocols or server
administration. At the same time, it gives users full control
over their remote shared information.
As an example, suppose that Mary is a member of a distributed
team. Using Marmot, Mary can add a PowerPoint presentation to
the team's shared workspace (located on a remote server), update
a text status report, and modify the access permissions to allow
Tom to co-author her draft report. The text status report is automatically
converted to HTML; the HTML pages for the shared workspace are
automatically updated to reflect all changes; and Joe, who has
requested E-mail notification, is automatically sent a message
summarizing the updates.
-
A PDA-Based Tool for Collaborative Design
-
Adrienne Warmack
(warmack@ucsu.Colorado.edu)
and Mark D. Gross,
College of Architecture and Planning,
University of Colorado; and
Wayne Citrin,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Colorado
As part of an ongoing project to develop drawing and diagram recognition
systems whose functionality is distributed between personal digital
assistant (PDA) front ends and host computer back ends, we have
designed a collaborative drawing system that allows multiple users,
at different locations, to collaborate in the construction of
diagrams. The system has a number of advantages over previously
proposed collaborative drawing systems. It employs inexpensive
hardware supporting both pen-based entry and communications, it
allows the easy integration of shape and handwriting recognition,
it supports off-line drawing of diagrams which can subsequently
be distributed and collaborated on, and it allows mediation of
the process by a centralized diagram-recognition back end.
- In the Thomas Paine Room:
-
TeamRoom
-
Paul Cole
(Paul_Cole/Lotus_Institute.LINET@crd.lotus.com),
Lotus Institute, Lotus Development Corp.
TeamRoom is a Lotus Notes application designed to support task
groups. Its design is based on group effectiveness principles
and technology implementation research. The application represents
a significant departure from the existing task management systems
designed for teams. The demonstration will show the system, discuss
the group principles underlying the system, indicate specific
design choices related to the principles and the initial pilot
phase findings on the organizational/group factors influencing
adoption.
-
Collaborative Virtual Workspace
-
Peter J. Spellman
(peter@kagoona.mitre.org),
MITRE Corp.
Collaborative Virtual Workspace (CVW) is a collaboration framework
in which people interact with documents and each other in a shared
virtual space. We developed CVW as a means of prototyping a collaboration
environment in which underlying services enable a seamless integration
of diverse tools. We have focused on integrating commercial tools
and services, developing our own where commercial ones do not
exist. This notion of tight integration of commercial tools is
one way in which CVW differs from other collaborative environments.
Other differences include:
- Support for persistence of all objects, including whiteboards.
Objects, once created, never disappear simply because the current
session has ended.
- Treatment of users and documents as primary objects. One can
see, search for and learn about them both.
- Reliance on and support of "semi-synchronous" collaboration,
where the synchronicity of the collaboration depends on availability
of collaborators rather than the mechanism chosen for collaboration.
We believe these concepts are important when integrating diverse
tools - tools that cross the continuum of synchronous to asynchronous,
and that enable collaboration with documents and users
-
Detailed Collaborative Analysis
-
Samer Minkara,
Ptech Inc.
This demonstration is based on a philosophy of cooperative teamwork
and a unique approach for specifying the requirements of collaborative
systems. A methodology for analyzing and prototyping collaborative
systems is supported by the TeamWork feature of FrameWork from
Ptech Inc. The tool for capturing specifications allows users
to extend the concepts for requirements modeling, making it possible
to capture system stipulations from various points of view. The
development and prototyping environments use a graphical interface
that simplifies design and analysis and makes them visible to
all levels of workers. We will show a design example for a multiuser
locking mechanism from which scenarios can be modeled and prototyped.
-
LearningSpace: Distributed, Collaborative Learning
-
Peter Rothstein,
Lotus Development Corp.
LearningSpace is an innovative, completely new type of distributed
learning solution. Developed by Lotus Education and Lotus Institute,
LearningSpace is a Lotus Notes-based educational technology solution
that enables students and teachers to most closely approximate
the collaborative atmosphere of a traditional classroom. LearningSpace
does this by allowing participants (students and instructors)
simultaneously to take advantage of stored information, use interactive
learning tools and communicate/collaborate without regard to time
or geographic boundaries. In addition, LearningSpace is a complete
solution for educational content delivery, incorporating training
and consulting support to help corporations and institutions of
higher learning create and deliver effective, instructor-led on-line
courses.
This is your chance to get a hands-on introduction to Lotus' innovative
new approach to distributed, collaborative learning. Through
first-hand experience with it's live interactive nature, asynchronous
learning capabilities, and sophisticated use of Lotus Notes, you'll
get a first-hand glimpse of the future of course delivery, development,
and deployment in the education industry.
-
Collaborative Object WorkSpace (COWS)
-
Shariq Khan and Munir Mandviwalla
(mandviwa@vm.temple.edu),
CIS Department, Temple University
COWS: Collaborative Object WorkSpace is an any-time, any-place,
any-work CSCW system. The goal of COWS is to create an architecture
that can support most if not all the collaborative work activities
of teams. Currently, COWS supports controlled and free form sentential,
sketch, and table based interaction on shared and private objects.
The most basic element in COWS is the object. Objects have properties
(e.g., title, sentences, graphics, and links to external documents)
and methods (e.g., add, edit, sort, merge, and vote). Objects
are manipulated in views such as Sketch (layered object based
drawings), List, and Table (organized lists). All the views are
wysiwis "live" in that data is updated in real time
or by a refresh command. Object libraries categorize individual
objects by shapes. For example, circles on the Sketch view may
explicitly represent questions, rectangles represent options,
and so on.
Tools are available to control and understand the work. Access
to data and object methods can be restricted and work is coordinated
by selecting specific views and invoking a "look here"
function. A "memory" log player allows play back of
events in the past. The playback allows the user to step back
and forth through the events of the selected session. A complementary
log book provides static representations of the memory. The demonstration
will focus on showing how COWS can support the continuity of work
across different time, place, and task contexts.
-
A Shared Language Schema for Fostering Collaboration
-
Kumar S. Nochur,
Vidya Technologies, Inc.
(vidya@world.std.com)
As groupware and other CSCW products enter mainstream use, the
lack of a shared language for computer-based cooperation is leading
to cyberglut and information anxiety. A shared, common basis
for electronic interactions can promote collaboration by fostering
more effective exchange of ideas and giving users a big picture
perspective of key issues. This presentation describes a schema
designed to fill this need. A visual implementation of this schema
will be presented, in a product called ThoughtFlow , along
with examples of its application for strategic planning, corporate
communication, and cross-functional collaboration.
-
GroupLens
-
John Riedl (riedl@mail.netperceptions.com),
Brad Miller, Joe Konstan, & Steven Snyder,
Net Perceptions, Inc.
The GroupLens research project, first reported at CSCW 94, is among the
first successful attempts to apply collaborative filtering to dynamic,
on-line information resources. Collaborative filtering alleviates
information overload by offering recommendations on whether an item is
valuable based on the opinions of those who have already evaluated it. The
GroupLens project established the viability of applying collaborative
filtering to Usenet news and extended collaborative filtering to use both
explicit and implicit measures of opinion.
Net Perceptions, Inc., has developed this research into the GroupLens
collaborative filtering toolkit. The toolkit enables on-line information,
product, and service providers to craft personalized experiences for
visitors to their sites. An on-line bookstore, for example, can adapt to
each user's tastes by providing personalized recommendations and by
organizing its content to match the user's preferences.
At the demo you will be able to participate in two example collaborative
filtering applications built on the GroupLens toolkit: a small bookstore and
Usenet news.
- In the Molly Pitcher Room:
-
Design Issues for CSCW Software for the Desktop
and
Meeting Room Interactive Displays
-
Dr. Joerg M. Haake
(haake@darmstadt.gmd.de)
and Christian Schuckmann,
GMD-IPSI; and
David Martin
(davidmar@smarttech.com),
Rob Kremer, and Tom Fukushima,
SMART Technologies Inc.
Dolphin from GMD-IPSI and SMART Ideas from SMART Technologies
Inc. are software applications that are built quite differently
to solve the issues involved with providing interfaces for both
local and remote electronically supported meetings. These products
will be used to demonstrate the issues and solutions that exist
in trying to provide meeting support tools on an interactive display
(SMART Board) as well as on desktop computers.
GMD will present the issues that they have seen and their solutions
for the system known as DOLPHIN. SMART Technologies Inc. will
present their solutions for pen based input on a SMART Board Interactive
Display while retaining support for local and remote desktop input.
A new software product known as SMART Ideas will be the main demonstration
tool. This product is based upon concept maps and allows objects
to be created within a multimedia object-oriented database.
-
Inhabited Virtual Worlds on the Internet
-
Bruce Damer
(bdamer@ccon.org),
Contact Consortium
This demonstration will introduce CSCW attendees to multi-user
social virtual worlds hosted on the Internet. Members of the Contact
Consortium and others will be on hand to demonstrate the environments
and help attendees engage in live exercises. These collaborative
exercises will involve the formation of groups for social discourse,
construction of shared spaces and other activities. As these exercises
will be hosted on the Internet, participants all over the world
will be free to join CSCW attendees. Participants in the demonstration
will also have an opportunity to share their impressions and opinions
during a panel to be held on this theme the next day.
The virtual environments to be used during this demonstrations
will include one or more of:
- AlphaWorld from Worlds Incorporated
- Worlds Chat from Worlds Incorporated
- Onlive Utopia from Onlive! Technologies
- The Palace from The Palace Incorporated
- In the Haym Salomon Room:
-
Computer Support for Concerted Teamwork
-
Jay Nunamaker, Bob Briggs
(bbriggs@bpa.arizona.edu),
and Daniel Mittleman,
Ventana Corp.
In this demonstration you'll go hands-on with GroupSystems, a
state-of-the-art GSS. You'll experience working on-line with other
participants to generate and prioritize a list of the top issues
facing CSCW researchers over the next five years. We will give
a brief review of the state of GSS research and development, and
demonstrate the state-of-the-art in Web- and LAN-based tools for
the virtual workplace. We will also demonstrate the use of a neural
network to extract and organize information from your on-line
transcripts and from the Web. We will conclude with an audience-participation
discussion of the issues raised during the session.
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