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Design and Use of a Group Editor. Clarence A. Ellis, Simon J. Gibbs and Gail L. Rein 1990. Grove (GRoup Outline Viewing Editor). A simple outline-only editor for small groups, either distributed or local
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Design and Use of a Group Editor Clarence A. Ellis, Simon J. Gibbs and Gail L. Rein 1990
Grove(GRoup Outline Viewing Editor) • A simple outline-only editor for small groups, either distributed or local • Based on the work on Listmaker Tool, Cognoter and various asynchronous outline editors(MIT CES and Bellcore Quilt) • Works as a tightly-coupled synchronous editor • Almost WYSWIS, slight difference in cursor position and permissions only
More on GROVE • All current users have an identical view of the text of the outline and see all changes in real time(vs. Cognoter) • Users can create three types views, public(visible by all) private(only visible locally) and shared(by invitation only) • Text indicates by color and number the status of an element • All text begins as world readable/writable to encourage group work, must be locked explicitly
Experience in using GROVE • (during all sessions, collaborators had access to voice communications as well as GROVE) • Positive • Increase access to personal reference material, as workers were in offices • Encouraged workers to divide and conquer • Less off topic discussion
Negative GROVE Experience • Less focus amoung group, requires more concentration to communicate when distributed, but face-to-face meetings feel shorter • Vocal discussions are more difficult in distributed sessions(partly technological). • Accidental deletion occures enough that Undo necessary
Commentary on GROVE testing • Collisions are less frequent than imagined, even without consciously reading all comments • Parallel tasks are taken on during work(such as moving a subtree). • Tool works far better during early stages of a project(most ideas are short and fit well with the outline)
Current Work • Commercial programs such as Microsoft NetMeeting, Lotus Notes and Netscape Cooltalk • Research test program Upper Atmosphere Research Collaboratory (UARC)
Current findings • Both synchronous and asynchronous communication(ie. participate in one group while another progresses and then contributing to the second) • Information Overload, methods to preven unnecessary information and preserve screen space • Robust and fault tolerant(both to bandwidth and client failure)
More current findings • Programs seem to fall into two groups, the general CSCW(NetMeeting, Notes…) with only basic tools: video and audio communication, file and whiteboard sharing(NetMeeting) or limited to group scheduling and communication(Notes) • Highly specialized: UARC, more tools but tailored to one field of work