Part IV Outside the Box

19 groupware

How often do you check:
	Voice mail
	Text messages
	Email
	Social media
Groupware
	Supports collaboration
	Interpersonal
	Decisions
	Sharing
Classified
	Where
	When
	What (info)
	Aspects supported
Difficulties
	Network
	Multiple components
	Many tools assume a single user
	Sharing/ concurrency issues
	
19.2 groupware systems
	Email
	Video conference
	Shared editors
		Word
		Google docs
	Co-authoring
	Where, when, function…
	Time space matrix
		Same place
		Same time
		Participants
		Aritifacts
	Function
		Computer mediated
		Meeting support systems
		Decision support system
		Shared applications and artifacts
19.3 computer mediated communication
	Email
	Bulletin boards
	Message systems
	(github, google docs)
	Chat room
Email and bulletin boards
	Prep
	Dispatch
	Delivery
	Notification
	Receipt
	Distribution lists
		To: CC: BCC
		Private? Shared? Control?
	Can have synchronous or asynchronous chat
Overload?
	Send text to 12 people; all 12 reply all = 144 + 12 +12 =168
	Sender does structure
		Important, subject, distribution….
	Recipient benefits
	User defined or system mandated
		New topic, response, comment,  reply, information …..
Video conferencing
	Decades
	ISDN made cell video talks (video compressions)
	Video conference need not use ‘computer’
	Cheaper than flying
	Less infectious
	Size of image
	less informal meeting
	eye contact hard
virtual cooperative environments
	what if you are looking at text and you point?
	Avatar
	Computer game systems

19.4 meeting and decision support
	Argumentation tools
		Hypertext
		Concurrency controls
		Notification of changes

	Meeting rooms
		WYSIWIS (is what I see)
		Electronic whiteboard
		Floor control: locking
		Social protocol
		Is your cursor visible?
		Shared work/drawing surfaces
			Need at least an audio link
			
19.5 shared applications and artifacts
	Shared PC
	Shared windows
	Some kind of locking
	Shared editors
		Are you seeing the same thing?
	WYSIWYG (is what you get)
		Sharing view
		Scroll wars
		Separate insertion points
Co-authoring
	Asynchronous
	Plan, apportion, drafts, comments
	Most hypertext based
	Add notes
	Concurrency controls
	Social protocols
	Roles
		(author, commentator, reader)
Shared diaries, shared calendars
	Finding times for group appointments
	People need to cooperate
	Privacy—is your calendar open?
	Can others ‘pencil in’ appointments?
communication
	act on artifacts 
	communicate about artifacts
	github
	indirect or direct?

19.6 frameworks for groupware
	Time/space matrix and asynchronous working
	Synchronous (serial access, fine grain locking)
		Example: registration
	Rare to be fluid across synchronous/asynchronous

Shared information
	Granularity (character, word, sentence, paragraph, page, chapter, ….)
	How often are updates shared
		Race conditions
	Can share data but not view
	Updates : manual or automatic? Timing? Delays?
	Text is naturally sequenced
		Time stamp?
Integrating communication and work
	Direct communication
	Common understanding
	Control and feedback from shared artifacts
	How does the WHOLE of cooperative work go?
	Example: bar code
Awareness
	Knowing what others are doing

19.7 implementing synchronous groupware
	Feedback and delays
	Centralized (client server)
	Replicated (impression of centralized with performance of distributed)
	Race conditions
	Roll back
	
	Share windows architectures
	Can have large data structures (and delays)
	
	Feedthrough and network traffic
	Every change at one of N computers (out of M) generates M * N updates!
	Imagine if update for every character typed!
	Chunk size (line or paragraph)
	Graphical toolkits
	Scale!
	Robustness and scalability
	Complexity makes failure more likely
	System development and testing may be limited; crash on busy usage
	
	Server faults
	Workstation faults
	Network
	Algorithm faults
	Unforeseen events
		Deadlock
	WanT robustness
	Reconfigure
	Resynchronizing

	Test for robustness
		Mistreat it
		Invite undergraduates to crash it