John M. Linebarger

Benefits of synchronous collaboration support for an application-centered analysis team working on complex problems: a case study

A month-long quasi-experiment was conducted using a distributed team responsible for modeling, simulation, and analysis. Six experiments of three different time durations (short, medium, and long) were performed. The primary goal was to discover if synchronous collaboration capability through a particular application improved the ability of the team to form a common mental model of the analysis problem(s) and solution(s). The results indicated that such collaboration capability did improve the formation of common mental models, both in terms of time and quality (i.e., depth of understanding), and that the improvement did not vary by time duration. In addition, common mental models were generally formed by interaction around a shared graphical image, the progress of collaboration was not linear but episodic, and tasks that required drawing and conversing at the same time were difficult to do.

Leaving the world behind: supporting group collaboration patterns in a shared virtual environment for product design

Virtual reality technology is increasingly being applied to globally distributed teams engaged in collaborative product design. Observations of product design teams have suggested four distinct patterns of collaborationcomplementary, competitive, peer-to-peer, and leader-follower. Another insight from observation is that collaboration consists of fluid transitions between these patterns in the accomplishment of the design task, driven by a flexible process of subgrouping and regrouping which reflects the structure and progress of the task. Yet most collaborative virtual environment systems support only one pattern of collaborationpeer-to-peerand those that do explicitly support multiple patterns or roles do not allow fluid transitions between them in the context of the same task. In addition, no explicit support is provided to allow subgroups to be formed and dissolved. A collaborative virtual environment that supports multiple collaboration patterns and fluid transitions was developed using the Shared Simple Virtual Environment (SSVE) application framework. A novel user interface widget, the collaboration tree, was created to drive the subgrouping and regrouping process. Group experiments were performed to test the operating hypothesis that support for group collaboration patterns led to higher performance. The result was that the operating hypothesis was confirmed; however, the conceptual approach to problem solving, suggested by the presence of support for collaboration patterns, may have been more significant than the actual mechanism provided.

Thoughts on critical infrastructure collaboration

In this paper, we describe what we believe to be the characteristics of the collaborations required in the domain of critical infrastructure modeling, based on our experiences to date. We adopt a knowledge management philosophy, which imposes two classes of requirements, contextual who, when, and why), and semantic what interactions are conducted around). We observe that infrastructure models can often engender more insight when used as the basis for a meaningful discussion between the disparate stakeholder groups (private industry, trade organizations, industry lobbying groups, etc.) than when exercised computationally.

Integrating software architectures for distributed simulations and simulation analysis communities.

The one-year Software Architecture LDRD (No.79819) was a cross-site effort between Sandia California and Sandia New Mexico. The purpose of this research was to further develop and demonstrate integrating software architecture frameworks for distributed simulation and distributed collaboration in the homeland security domain. The integrated frameworks were initially developed through the Weapons of Mass Destruction Decision Analysis Center (WMD-DAC), sited at SNL/CA, and the National Infrastructure Simulation & Analysis Center (NISAC), sited at SNL/NM. The primary deliverable was a demonstration of both a federation of distributed simulations and a federation of distributed collaborative simulation analysis communities in the context of the same integrated scenario, which was the release of smallpox in San Diego, California. To our knowledge this was the first time such a combination of federations under a single scenario has ever been demonstrated. A secondary deliverable was the creation of the standalone GroupMeld{trademark} collaboration client, which uses the GroupMeld{trademark} synchronous collaboration framework. In addition, a small pilot experiment that used both integrating frameworks allowed a greater range of crisis management options to be performed and evaluated than would have been possible without the use of the frameworks.

The Design for Tractable Analysis (DTA) Framework: A Methodology for the Analysis and Simulation of Complex Systems

The Design for Tractable Analysis (DTA) framework was developed to address the analysis of complex systems and so-called “wicked problems.†DTA is distinctive because it treats analytic processes as key artifacts that can be created and improved through formal design processes. Systems (or enterprises) are analyzed as a whole, in conjunction with decomposing them into constituent elements for domain-specific analyses that are informed by the whole. After using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) to frame the problem in the context of stakeholder needs, DTA harnesses the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) to structure the analysis of the system and address questions about the emergent properties of the system. The novel use of DSM to “design the analysis†makes DTA particularly suitable for addressing the interdependent nature of complex systems. The use of DTA is demonstrated by a case study of sensor grid placement decisions to secure assets at a fixed site.

Smallpox over San Diego: Joint Real-Time Federations of Distributed Simulations and Simulation Users under a Common Scenario

A joint project between the California and New Mexico branches of Sandia National Laboratories has demonstrated the formation of joint real-time federations of both distributed simulations and distributed simulation users under a common scenario. Two software integration frameworks were used to achieve the real-time federations. The IDSim framework, developed by Georgia Tech University and Sandia National Laboratories, was used to create the real-time federation of distributed simulations, in this case the BioDAC WMD simulation and the N-ABLEtrade agent-based microeconomic simulation (more properly, because of the impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an N-ABLEtrade emulator). The GroupMeldtrade multimedia synchronous collaboration framework, developed by Sandia, was used to create the real-time federation of simulation users and simulation analysis communities. The common scenario was the release of smallpox over San Diego, California, and the operating hypothesis was that the economy itself dampens the spread of a pathogen. In addition, a small pilot experiment using the joint federations allowed a greater range of crisis management options to be performed and evaluated than would have been possible without the use of the integration frameworks.