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1 : Background & Purpose
The
Internet has made new modes of business and communication affordable
and reliable. There are now many raw technologies for the delivery of
information from various kinds of "data servers" to the desktops
of individual users. There is now an increasing need for and emphasis
on using the power of this technology to enable groups of users to work
together in a variety of different areas.
Despite
the emergence of standalone tools like chat, instant message, email,
real-time video and audio tele-conference, there is a true need in the
field for intuitive metaphors to organize and conduct group work over
the Internet. Collabrium is a technology that addresses this
burning need in the contemporary software marketplace.
Collabrium can be used by groups of individuals in geographically distributed locations
to collaborate in a variety of different modes by drawing upon the intuitive
metaphors drawn from the physical universe that are familiar to everyone.
Section
2 : Summary of Innovative Characteristics of Collabrium
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2.1.
Metaphor of a Real-World Meeting Place
When one organizes group activity, one has to choose
a place for the group to meet, and decide what kinds of functionality
are needed in the place where the group meets. The first innovation
in Collabrium is the idea that one goes to a conference center to
get together with others in the group -- a conference center that
is organized along the same lines as a real-world conference center,
and not as a set of disjointed and unintegrated computer tools such
as email, chat, and document exchange. The schematic for the Collabrium conference center is discussed in detail in Section 3.1.
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2.2.
Metaphor of Virtual Spaces to Organize Collaborative Functionality
Functionality
within the conference center is organized just like it is in the
physical world -- into rooms, each of which has self-evident functionality
for anyone in contemporary society. The rooms within the conference
center resemble physical rooms E.g., a library, a theater, a lounge,
meeting, room, etc. This is a key difference because collaborative
tools today package and organize functionality into traditional,
inscrutable menus. So long as the group is functioning, everyone
in THAT GROUP will see the same conference center rooms, decor,
and content - further reinforcing the resemblance to the physical
world. The rooms within the Collabrium conference center
and their detailed functionality are described in Section 3.
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2.3.
Metaphor of "Renting a Conference Center"
All
conference centers are not alike. In real life, people choose meeting
places that are in keeping with their requirements and budget. There
may be different rooms of different sizes and functionalities that
the group coordinator believes the group will need to accomplish
its goals. This is exactly the same way that Collabrium works. One
can customize the conference center to the needs of the group in
several dimensions such as the kinds of rooms needed for the group
to function effectively, size of the rooms, appearance of the rooms,
etc. Precisely how the customization is done is described in Section
5.
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2.4.
Persistent Customizable Content for Each Group
Each group has a purpose for which it has been convened and which
it will attempt to accomplish collaboratively. Different groups
need different reference materials (documents, Web pages, video/audio
material, etc.) in order to conduct its work. Collabrium
provides mechanisms for the coordinator of a group to make content
available to the group. Content is determined by the group, and
will be available as long as the group is functioning. The same
individual might be part of different groups, but will see the conference
center in different ways depending on the group which that person
is attached to when entering the conference center.
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2.5.
Distributing of Content into Different Rooms
The
Library has reference materials such as documents and URLs. The
Theater has video and multi-media content. The Lounge has recreational
and relaxation material. All this material is naturally partitioned
in much the same way we see in the physical world, making it easier
for the group members to find the appropriate reference materials
rapidly.
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2.6.
Real-time and Long-term Group Support
Groups
sometime need to function in real-time (e.g., to do something together
like brain-storming), and sometimes they need to work together asynchronously
for extended periods of time. Supporting hybrid and complex modes
of collaboration is an important innovation within Collabrium.
Collabrium is organized around the central idea of a group
and its meeting places and meeting content being persistent. Therefore,
the group can meet in real-time or conduct work over an extended
period of time with long term collaborative objectives at their
different locations. Running transcripts (minutes) are automatically
maintained of interactions in the meeting room and other public
places to make this an efficient process.
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2.7.
Sophisticated Push Computing Engine
Collabrium is implemented as a 2-tier or 3-tier client/server
system (Details in Section 6). In either case, Collabrium uses
an engine that is utilized to coordinate the activities, messages,
and documents of participants so that they can be aware of activities
of others in the group. The Collabrium Server notices when
events occur (e.g., new document in the library, or new chat message,
etc.) and will notify the participants of that group about those
events. Thus, participants are guaranteed that they will be notified
of events relevant to their group. If the participant is online,
they can use the notification to start real-time collaboration.
However, if the participant is not on line, he or she will see the
new content the next time they visit the conference center as a
member of this group.
Section
3: Rooms and Functionality of Collabrium
Rooms
within Collabrium resemble physical rooms, giving the participants
the strong impression and feeling that they are in actual real-world
physical spaces that have obvious functionality. In addition, where
relevant, personalized avatars are used to inform participants of others
who are present within the room. The overall schematic for Collabrium
looks as below. Participants can navigate through the conference center
by locating the portals to each room, or by using a WorldMap which will
also be described herein.
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3.1.
Collabrium Lobby
The
Lobby is a transitional place as participants move from room to
room. If you exit any room through its portal, you will be in the
lobby of the conference center in Collabrium. It is also
usable as a greeting area where one can see announcements of events
and so on.
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3.2.
Collabrium Library
The
Collabrium Library is used to stack and view references materials
- reports, spreadsheets, drawings, Web documents (URLs), etc. are
organized in the Library. The Library has 4 bookcases and 4 shelves
within each bookcase. The coordinator can choose captions for the
bookcases and shelves that are meaningful to his or her group, and
thus make it convenient for them to know how the material is organized.
The coordinator is also responsible for populating the shelves with
content. Participants can locate materials by exploring the bookcases
(using their captions, if provided), or by using the Library Index
that is automatically maintained.
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3.3.
Collabrium Meeting Room
The
Meeting Room is a vibrant place where participants come face to
face to do the work that they are supposed to do. Name tags are
randomly placed in the meeting room seats corresponding to all participants.
Avatars of the people that are actually in attendance will be located
in the seats allocated to them. Mechanisms for public discussion
(chat dialog), instant message (private dialog), and examining the
agenda for the meeting are provided here. Only the coordinator can
actually move the agenda forward. A meeting timer makes it easy
for the coordinator to allocate time limits for specific activities.
The Blackboard is used to draw charts and free hand drawings that
participants can share in real-time should they need to.
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3.4.
Collabrium Lounge
The
Lounge is used as a rest and recreation area. However, this room
also has group-specific content determined by the coordinator. The
big screen TV will serve up randomly selected recreational videos.
The NewsRack will connect the participant to the default Web Browser
on that machine so that one can directly use the World Wide Web.
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3.5.
Collabrium Theater
The
Collabrium Theater is used to view multimedia content (video,
audio, and other "heavy" content) in a non-interactive
setting. Essentially, the viewer is presented the material he or
she selects. Note that the content in this room will depend upon
which group the participant chose while entering the Collabrium
facility.
Section
4: How Participants Interact with Collabrium
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4.1.
Interacting with Collabrium as a Group Participant
To enter Collabrium, you must specify which group you are
participating in. Collabrium is automatically configured
as needed for that group. All rooms and content will automatically
be customized to the group. The appearance of and the content in
these rooms will be around until the coordinator removes them or
changes the conference center.
In addition, each group is provided a set of tools such as Chat,
Calculator, Topical Email, etc. These tools are automatically attached
to this group and this group alone. In effect, this provides automatic
threading of messages. All participants use these tools to collaborate
and provide their input to the rest of the group.
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Interacting with Collabrium as a Group Coordinator
The
group leader has a more onerous task, of course, than the rest of
the participants. The coordinator is responsible for the following
activities within the group:
a)
Setting up the group itself, including who are the participants,
and what the topic of the meeting
actually is.
Selecting the set of conference facilities needed for this group,
and customizing their look and feel to the group's tastes and
budget.
b)
Setting up the content of key rooms (such as the Library, Theater,
Lounge) so that the group has all the materials it needs to
move forward with its work.
Determining
the agenda for the group (this can be changed dynamically over time).
Advancing the agenda as items are completed, and generally running the
meeting proactively
Section
5: Dimensions of Customizability of Collabrium
The
coordinator of a group meeting in Collabrium can customize the
look, feel, and contents of the conference center to his or her group's
needs. This is done by interacting with a Meeting Setup Wizard
that walks the individual coordinator through a small series of steps
to understand the person's needs.
- What
is the maximum size of the group? This will determine how many seats
and name cards will be placed in different rooms as applicable.
- What
is the range of rooms required? Coordinators can choose the set
of rooms they wish.
- The
coordinator is provided dialog on the finish and color of the walls,
the ceilings, floors, and furniture types for the conference room.
- What
collection of tools must each participant be provided?
- Multimedia
capability - whether it should be offered via the theater, and modes
for it to be offered (along with differential performances on each
mode).
Based
upon the specifications of the coordinator, the Collabrium Server
stores these settings as the relevant ones for that group. When any
of the participants tries to join this group through Collabrium,
these settings are retrieved, and the look and feel of the conference
room is automatically customized for that participant per the coordinator's
instructions. In this way, when the same person "Joe" participates
in different groups via Collabrium, he will see different rooms
and functionalities of the Conference Center as determined by the person
who created the group.
Section
6: Architecture for Delivery of Collabrium Functionality
The
Collabrium software is a client/server software system. This
means that a single server (that is maintained by the organization that
is responsible for setting up and coordinating the groups) can service
multiple participants. Each participant is an Collabrium client.
This can be offered over the standard multi-tier Web architecture as
shown below.
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