Wolfgang Prinz

NESSIE: an awareness environment for cooperative settings

This paper describes NESSlE1, an awareness environment for cooperative settings. Key elements of NESSIE are an application independent generic infrastructure, an open and extendable protocol including dynamic event types, and a set of sensors and configurable indicators, both for discrete and contextual event notifications. Special aspects of the NESSIE server are the support access control, reciprocity, event transformation, the provision of different interaction methods, the implementation of a subscription method that is based on interest profiles, as well as the possibility of sharing profiles among groups. With the integration of real-world sensors and tangible interfaces for the presentation of awareness information, NESSIE enables new ways to foster task-oriented and social awareness.

Supporting cooperative awareness with local event mechanisms: the groupdesk system

An event distribution model for a computer based cooperative working environment is presented. The proposed model aims to provide information about the on-going and past activities of collaborating users, based on the semantics and contextual relationships of the shared artifacts and contributes to increase the awareness of the ongoing state of affairs without overloading the user with additional information. GroupDesk, a prototype implementation of this model is introduced. The system provides a simple environment for the coordination of cooperative document production. Support for shared awareness is achieved by visualizing the event information using the desktop metaphor.

Support for workflows in a ministerial environment

ABSTRACTThis paper presents the P OLI Team solutions andexperiences with the support of ministerial workflows byelectronic circulation folders. An application scenario ispresented that illustrates the user actions and cooperationthat occur during the processing of a ministerial workflow.This scenario is afterwards examined to identify essentialrequirements for a computer based support of suchprocesses. Based on that this paper describes the design ofan electronic circulation folder and how this is augmentedby a support for digital signatures, the integration of paperdocuments and a video conferencing system to satisfy themajor user requirements.K e y w o r d sw o r k f l o w , electronic circulation folder, shared workspaces,digital signatures, participatory designINTRODUCTIONThe decision of the German parliament to move the capitalfrom Bonn to Berlin increases the demand for a computerand telecommunication based support of ministerialprocesses within and between dislocated governmentdepartments. In this context four projects have beenlaunched by the German research ministry in theframework of the POLIKOM [6] initiative. Each projectfocuses on specific aspects from the wide range ofcooperation support that is needed in this application field.The central objective of the P

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.

Modelling Shared Contexts in Cooperative Environments: Concept, Implementation, and Evaluation

Users who work together require adequate information about their cooperative environment: about other group members’ presence and activities, about shared artefacts, etc. In the CSCW literature several concepts, prototypes, and systems for providing this group awareness information have been presented. In general, they capture information from the environment, process it, and present it to the users. This paper addresses the processing aspect; in particular, we present a concept for processing awareness information by means of awareness contexts. With this concept we address the problem of contextualising event notifications enabling the presentation of notifications in the appropriate user situation. We describe a lightweight model and its integration into an event and notification infrastructure. We report on an empirical study, and draw some conclusions for the design of context-awareness for cooperative environments.

Contexts, work processes, and workspaces

In this paper a framework for the conceptual modelling of organizational contexts is provided and it is embodied into an extension of the TOSCA organizational handbook.The context of a work process is relevant since the effectiveness of the cooperation among its actors is highly dependent on their awareness of it. It requires, on the one hand, that the context is made available in terms of visibility and/or transparency; on the other, that at any time a selection is made so that only what is relevant to the context is provided, leaving the rest in the background. With respect to the first requirement a model of the organizational context is needed, so that all the information regarding its dimensions can be linked together. With respect to the second requirement, a work process model provides some guidelines for designing a system offering a selective access to the context of a work process. The workspace metaphor is a good paradigm to make that information ready at hand, since it is the natural framework within which people do their work.

Designing groupware for congruency in use

In this paper, we present experiences from long-term groupware development, introduction, and use in an organization. We report lessons learned concerning how a complex design process operates and how its components interact. Our experiences suggest that the processes of requirement analysis, system development, and user support need to facilitate the merging of individual work patterns into congruent system usage. We confirm the changing nature of groupware use by reporting empirical results describing different learning phases.

TOSCA providing organisational information to CSCW applications

Most cooperation support systems require information about the organisational context in which they are used. This is particularly required when systems are used in a large organisation or for the support of inter-organisational cooperation. Following from this requirement, this paper presents the design and functionality of the organisational information system TOSCA for cooperation support systems. TOSCA is composed of two major components: an organisational information base server, which provides services to applications and an organisational information browser, which provides user access. The paper describes the motivation for an organisational information system, the object oriented data model that is used for the information representation, the architecture of the overall system, and the design of the user interface that presents and provides access to the multimedia information. It concludes with the description of how this system supports a task management system and the role it would play in a CSCW environment.

Combining multiple gaming interfaces in epidemic menace

This paper presents the multiple gaming interfaces of the crossmedia game Epidemic Menace, including a game board station, a mobile assistant and a mobile Augmented Reality (AR) system. Each gaming interface offers different functionality within the game play. We explain the interfaces and describe early results of an ethnographic observation showing how the different gaming interfaces were used by the players to observe, collaborate and interact within the game.

The AMIGO Project: advanced group communication model for computer-based communications environment

In this paper we discuss and elaborate on the conceptual requirements as well as the tools of the General AMIGO Model for group communication. The special features of the model are examined with particular reference to the social and ethical implications in the communication process. The applicability of the AMIGO Model is demonstrated by examples, and we give indications of further work to refine and advance the model.