Exploring peer-to-peer infrastructure for Computer Supported Collaborative Work applications

The recent advances in networking have determined an increasing use of information technology to support distributed cooperative applications. Several novel applications have emerged in this area, like computer supported collaborative work (CSCW), large scale distributed virtual worlds, collaborative recommender systems, collaborative learning systems. The definition of these applications requires to afford several challenges, like the definition of user interfaces, of coordination protocols, and of proper middle-ware and architectures supporting distributed cooperation. Collaborative applications may greatly benefits also from the support of P2P and cloud architectures. As a matter of fact, with the emergence of readily available P2P and cloud platforms, collaborative applications developers have the opportunity of deploying their collaborative application by exploiting a hybrid P2P/Cloud architectures with a support dynamically adapting . This brings possibilities to smaller developers that were reserved for the big companies until recently. The integration of mobile/Cloud platforms for Collaborative Applications is another challenge for the widespread of these applications.

Virtual Reality (VR) appears a natural medium for three-dimensional computer supported collaborative work (CSCW). However the current trend in CSCW is to adapt the computer interface to work with the user's traditional tools, rather than separating the user from the real world as does immersive VR. One solution is through Augmented Reality, the overlaying of virtual objects on the real world. In this paper we describe the Shared Space concept--the application of Augmented Reality for three-dimensional CSCW. This combines the advantages of Virtual Reality with current CSCW approaches. We describe a collaborative experiment based on this concept and present preliminary results which show that this approach may be better for some applications.

Computer-based tools supporting collaborative work are becoming crucial elements to organize the activities of groups of people. Nevertheless, current tools do not enable users to incorporate social regulation aspects. In particular, it is not possible to set-up social rules (and the conditions to execute them) to control the interactions among the members of a workgroup. We explore the main issues on introducing social regulation in computer-supported collaborative work. Based on our regulation model, we propose an infrastructure enabling users to ease the development of regulated collaborative applications. The proposed infrastructure is composed by a framework of regulation components and a component management service.

The aim of this Paper is to present our model for a generic and flexible negotiation Service and its implementation in Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) environments. Within a cooperative work environment, users naturally need negotiation support mechanisms to study possible alternatives in group decision making. The objective of our work is to build a negotiation model independent of any particular application field. Contrary to studied models, our model focuses on formalizing the negotiation from three Points of view: exchanged information between the agents to negotiate (the language), the way this information is exchanged (the protocol) , and the internal behavior of an agent (the tactics). In addition to a Separation of the Problems involved in each one of these three facets of the negotiation, this approach allows also a greater flexibility than traditional Systems dedicated to one kind of Problems. We Chose to use a transactional approach based on Speech acts to develop our axiom based negotiation model which has been implemented as a negotiation Service in our CSCW environment DisCOO [l, 2]. After the tackled Problem presentation, we will expose the state of the art, then the proposed negotiation formal model, and, finally, the implementation.

In this paper we review two application areas in the field of IT concerning advanced manufacturing technology and office automation. We argue that new systems in both these areas have been predominantly technology-led in their development and implementation, excluding adequate attention to their human and organizational aspects. We describe two case studies as illustrations of these points and argue that the reasons for this technology-led approach lie in a complex interacting set of social systems that work effectively to marginalize the human and organizational aspects of the new technologies.The applicability of these findings to the domain of Computer Supported Collaborative Working (CSCW) is examined. There are two main sets of lessons that can be learned: those that apply generally to the field of IT, and thereby have relevance also to the special case of CSCW; and those that are particular to the conduct and content of research and development into CSCW. These lessons are outlined in the form of sets of suggestions.

Computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) becomes important for the architectural practice and design education in recent years. Design guidance on design operations facilitates design studios to achieve their educational and research purposes. This study depicts the experience of computer-supported collaborative design learned from three collaborative design studios. Design guidance can advise participants to understand the purpose of communication in CSCW, anticipate design collaboration, and formulate design operations by the process model. Based on the observations of CDS, the discussion focuses on how to develop guidance on design operations according to the following factors: (1) structured framework, (2) the kind of technology, (3) the level of communication, and (4) the process model of CSCW.

This paper presents the findings from a study into the current exploitation of computer-supported collaborative working (CSCW) in design for the built environment in the UK. The research is based on responses to a web-based questionnaire. Members of various professions, including civil engineers, architects, building services engineers, and quantity surveyors, were invited to complete the questionnaire. The responses reveal important trends in the breadth and size of project teams at the same time as new pressures are emerging regarding team integration and efficiency. The findings suggest that while CSCW systems may improve project management (e.g., via project documentation) and the exchange of information between team members, it has yet to significantly support those activities that characterize integrated collaborative working between disparate specialists. The authors conclude by combining the findings with a wider discussion of the application of CSCW to design activity—appealing for CSCW to go beyond multidisciplinary working to achieve interdisciplinary working.

As spaces for learning about Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) research and practice (e.g., university classes, academic and industry labs, conferences) become more diverse, there is a pressing need to revise the universal collaborative and pedagogical structures supporting them. Specifically, it has become urgent to explore how to 'de-center' dominant assumptions about who learns in these environments. The goal of this workshop is to explore collectively how to craft learning spaces that resist universality by recognizing and valuing other perspectives and realities. We build on the scholarship of decolonial thinkers, which provides useful theoretical scaffolding on how to start working towards inclusivity and 'pluriversality'. That is, learning spaces where all views can co-exist as equally valid, albeit contradicting. Our workshop will be led by researchers and designers who have both guided and participated in academic and industry-based CSCW learning spaces across domains like Social Computing, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD), Critical Data Studies, and Participatory Design (PD). We invite a broad range of participants from research and practice interested in learning about or deepening their understanding of how to make of CSCW a more 'pluriversal' site for learning and practicing.

A “FLOWS CONSISTENCY” MODEL FOR MESSAGE ORDERING IN COLLABORATIVE DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS

This chapter introduces methods to enable to act on the results of articulation and alignment processes. As such, it outlines paths towards sharing and anchoring new work practices in organizations. The proposed methodologically grounded interventions allow to qualitatively validate novel work practices and to agree on strategies for their organization-wide roll-out. Drawing from current practice-oriented research in organizational development, Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW), and knowledge management, this chapter also includes an account on supporting technology that could be used to aid method deployment.

The use of conversational agents to support team-based training in virtual environments is a nascent area of research within the Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) and Conversational User Interface (CUI) communities. To support this research, we developed a Wizard of Oz (WoZ) system enabling experimenters to play the role of the conversational agent who must work with a team of three human participants to herd together a group of autonomous robots (target agents) within a virtual task environment. The experimenter can select from one of several tailored responses. The aim of this environment is to determine whether the identified responses facilitate effective team performance and to collect training data to build a conversational agent capable of engaging in team based virtual learning environments.

We have developed an environment in which real-world collaborative working (RWCW) and computer-supported collaborative working (CSCW) can be seamlessly integrated. Real-world collaboration usually involves mobile individuals in casual or pre-arranged meetings with colleagues. On the other hand computer-supported collaboration involves using computer-based tools to cooperate, e.g. multimedia conferencing and shared design tools. Our environment generalizes activities from the real-world and computer-supported collaboration as events. This enables computer-based applications to be built around a mixture of both scenarios, e.g. a user mobile in the real-world, may be using computer-supported tools to collaborate with other users. If the user moves between locations in the physical world, the computer-based tools he/she is using follow, being transported to the nearest, or a selected workstation. Our environment supports the automatic storage of events, both real-world and computer-supported so that collaborative activities can be later replayed, queried, analyzed and visualized. It is our thesis that this paradigm effectively removes the limitations that each form of collaboration has in isolation, and applications like the ones we have been able to develop using this infrastructure can enhance individual and group productivity.

During the last decades, the research field of Computer-Supported Collaborative Work has made impressive progress in proposing theories, techniques, and tools to support collaborative work in different settings. Nevertheless, despite the advances in the field and its branches, individuals with impairments still face inclusion challenges when performing computer-supported collaborative activities. In order to take part in such type of activities, individuals are expected to have skills and knowledge that may be affected by impairments. In the beginning of this PhD research, we studied means to include an individual with blindness in diagram-based activities conducted as part of software engineering lectures taught by the thesis author. As part of that, we noticed that researchers and practitioners generally did not follow any collaboration-oriented method to address accessibility issues when designing or redesigning collaboration supportive systems, also known as groupware. In this context, we decided to focus our attention on this gap. As a result, we developed Collab4All, a method to support the identification of potential challenges as well as alternative solutions that may arise when designing or redesigning accessible and inclusive groupware. As a proof of concept, we applied Collab4All to the aforementioned scenario of including individuals with blindness in diagram-related learning activities. Based on our findings, we documented some suggestions to researchers and developers working in this application scenario. The present document contains detailed information about this research process. We consider that the method proposed in this thesis, its application results and the groupware we developed, named Model2gether, are relevant contributions to the field of computer-supported collaborative work involving people with impairments.

The case study describes how the team members of a Tunisian Environmental Scanning Agriculture Observatory dealt with new ways of communicating introduced by technology. An inter-organizational computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) platform was implemented within the agriculture observatory to ameliorate the communication of information and knowledge between the stakeholders. Our study aims to determine what contextual conditions could impede the adoption of the new ways of communicating and sharing knowledge. A diagnostic tool was designed and used to assess the impact of culture, structure and top management attitude, as contextual conditions, on the achievement of the collaborative environmental scanning and knowledge exchange activity. To understand the dynamic between these variables and their interplay during the implementation phases of the CSCW, we conducted a longitudinal study. The results could assist managers at the organizational level; indeed they will be able to avoid failures and to better support the process of organizational change.

This paper presents recent research into the functions and value of sketch outputs during computer supported collaborative design. Sketches made primarily exploiting whiteboard technology are shown to support subjects engaged in remote collaborative design, particularly when constructed in ‘nearsynchronous’ communication. The authors define near-synchronous communication and speculate that it is compatible with the reflective and iterative nature of design activity. There appears to be significant similarities between the making of sketches in near-synchronous remote collaborative design and those made on paper in more traditional face-to-face settings With the current increase in the use of computer supported collaborative working (CSCW) in undergraduate and postgraduate design education it is proposed that sketches and sketching can make important contributions to design learning in this context.