Markus Sohlenkamp

Integrating communication, cooperation, and awareness: the DIVA virtual office environment

DIVA, a novel environment for group work, is presented. This prototype virtual office environment provides support for communication, cooperation, and awareness in both the synchronous and asynchronous modes, smoothly integrated into a simple and intuitive interface which may be viewed as a replacement for the standard graphical user interface desktop. In order to utilize the skills that people have acquired through years of shared work in real offices, DIVA is modeled after the standard office, abstracting elements of physical offices required to support collaborative work: people, rooms, desks, and documents.

POLITeam bridging the gap between Bonn and Berlin for and with the users

Supporting the cooperation of people in large organizations which are distributed geographically is one of the great challenges for the CSCW research. With POLIKOM, the German Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Technology launched a framework in which telecooperation applications will be developed to support the distributed government in Bonn and Berlin. POLITeam is one project embedded in that framework. Its aim is to support asynchronous cooperation in administrative or industrial settings by an integrative groupware system that applies the metaphors of electronic circulation folders and shared workspaces. The development process is based on the approach of using an existing groupware system that is evaluated and redesigned in close cooperation with selected pilot partners. This paper describes the initial design, our development approach and the first experiences of the POLITeam project.

Supporting groupware conventions through contextual awareness

Conventions are an important part of articulation work. They are a means to merge the various perspectives and workstyles that are involved in handling shared objects in CSCW. We report on convention use with a groupware system used in a government ministry. Our findings suggest that defining, establishing, and following conventions is aided by the visibility of other peoples activities using the system. We describe a prototype that supports users in maintaining conventions by providing awareness facilities and an overview for shared objects.

POLIAwaC: Design and evaluation of an awareness-enhanced groupware client

Presenting the activities of others at the user interface — thereby providing awareness — a is crucial aspect of CSCW systems. However, this problem is often neglected by existing designs. This paper discusses design requirements, introduces a notification design framework and describes the functionality ofPoliAwaC, a groupware client aimed specifically at supporting awarenes.PoliAwaC provides a variety of different graphical notification mechanisms which can be coupled to specific working situations using the AREA model. We also report on the evaluation of the system under real-life conditions in a German federal ministry.

Visualizing Common Artefacts to Support Awareness inComputer-Mediated Cooperation

The idea of a “common artefact” is a useful metaphor for the design of CSCW systems. Our ACCT model of a common artefact describes structural elements that provide awareness about the work of others. The ACCT model identifies actors, contents, conversations, and tools as the central components of a common artefact, arranged on a shared background. The elements of a common artefact provide both a background visualization of the activity, but also permit dynamic notification of particular events. We explore this process of notification, which is composed of a selection and a presentation stage. We identify the critical factors of the process, in particular we highlight techniques related to temporal and spatial distortion. The framework helps to prepare design decisions of multi-user systems more consciously.

Awareness and cooperative work: the POLITeam approach

The paper investigates design issues which support awareness in collaborative environments. The work we present is part of the POLITeam project, an ongoing research effort aimed at the development of electronic tools to support the cooperation of German government sites distributed between Bonn and Berlin. The paper addresses social, ethical, legal, and technical issues which form important prerequisites for the design of awareness functionality in large organizations. These aspects have been identified as the result of a tight interaction process among the systems developers and selected pilot users in a federal ministry. Based on these requirements, we present the architectural model of the awareness service of the POLITeam system.

Transparenz in kooperativen Prozessen: Der Ereignisdienst in POLITeam

Transparenz uber die Aktivitaten anderer Nutzer ist entscheidend fur einen erfolgreichen Einsatz von kooperationsunterstutzenden Systemen. Beim Entwurf transparenzfordernder Systeme sind neben den funktionalen Anforderungen auch soziale, rechtliche und organisatorische Fragestellungen zu berucksichtigen. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt, ausgehend von Erfahrungen beim Einsatz des POLITeam-Systems, einen umfassenden Losungsansatz, basierend auf einem Architekturmodell, das diese verschiedenen Faktoren integriert.

Supporting the Distributed German Government with POLITeam

In the context of the POLIKOM research program novel telecooperation tools to support the distributed German government are being developed. POLITeam is one of the projects resulting from this program, aiming at the development of a system supporting cooperation in large, geographically distributed organizations. Main area of research is asynchronous cooperation, based on the metaphors of electronic circulation folders and shared electronic workspaces. The design process of POLITeam is based on the continuous improvement of an existing groupware system in close cooperation with selected pilot users. This paper discusses our methodological design approach, the design of the POLITeam system, and the experiences our application partners made in the course of using the system at work.

PoliAwaC — Design und Evaluation des PoliTeam Awareness-Client

Die Prasentation von Aktionen und Aktivitaten kooperierender Partner an der Benutzungsschnittstelle zur Vermittlung einer Gruppenwahrnehmung ist ein wichtiger Aspekt von CSCW Systemen. Dennoch wird er wird beim Entwurf von Groupwareanwendungen haufig vernachlassigt. Dieses Papier beschreibt Designanforderungen, die Realisierung und die Evaluation von PoliAwaC, einem Groupwareklient, der speziell zur Unterstutzung der Gruppenwahrnehmung entwickelt wurde. Die beschriebenen Ergebnisse basieren auf einer Evaluation des Systems in einer Anwenderorganisation.

Multimedia groupware design for a distributed government

The decision to shift essential parts of the German government from Bonn to Berlin is a challenge for the design and implementation of groupware systems. The distribution of the government functions defines new requirements for support through telecooperation; e.g. for ministries whose units are divided up between the two locations. The focus of the system developed in the POLITeam project is the support of asynchronous and synchronous cooperation in big organizations. The asynchronous cooperation has an essential share. In this context, the metaphors of the electronic circulation folder and the common workspace proved to be suitable means for the description and implementation of office processes. Based on an available groupware system, its further development is pursued, together with pilot users from ministries and industry. The user requirements were deployed to implement a couple of prototypes which were evaluated again by the users, leading to a participatory design.