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The Virtual Notebook System: Distributed Hypertext for Collaborative Research

The Virtual Notebook System: Distributed Hypertext for Collaborative Research. Frank M. Shipman, III, R. Jesse Chaney, G. Anthony Gorry , Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. Presented By : Ananda Man Shrestha Course : Hypertext (CPSC 610). Introduction. VNS : Virtual Notebook System

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The Virtual Notebook System: Distributed Hypertext for Collaborative Research

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  1. The Virtual Notebook System: Distributed Hypertext for Collaborative Research Frank M. Shipman, III, R. Jesse Chaney, G. Anthony Gorry , Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas Presented By : Ananda Man Shrestha Course : Hypertext (CPSC 610)

  2. Introduction • VNS : Virtual Notebook System • Prototype of an information integration and management environment for collaborative work. • Designed to enhance information sharing among the members of scientific teams. • Electronic analog to scientist’s notebook.

  3. Design Goals • Support collaborative work • Concurrency control, privacy control, file sharing, group works etc • Support heterogeneous computing environment • Different hardware and software platforms • Facility to incorporate external information resources and applications. • Early systems like NoteCards (Notebook System) and KMS (Knowledge Systems) lacked one or other aspects of above goals.

  4. Virtual Notebook System Virtual Notebook System • VNS : Virtual Notebook System • Hypertext system implemented in Sybase. • Clear distinction between user interface and data access mechanism.

  5. Hypertext for VNS • Constitutes multiple work group servers (WGSs) connected through a network. • Local hypertext information managed in a relational database of WGS. • Sharing of information among WGS through hypertext.

  6. VNS : Page • Basic unit in hypertext – a page. • Contains a title and information objects (text, images). • Information objects on a page may be from multiple work group file servers. • Page contains modification control mechanism. • Creating information objects • using text editors • using snapshot tool • copying objects • creating links, reference to other pages in hypertext web.

  7. VNS : Page (Contd.)

  8. VNS : Links

  9. VNS : Attributes • Items may have multiple attribute/value tuples. • Attribute may be multi-valued. • Attribute/value tuple is associated with creator.

  10. VNS : Notebook • Web of pages connected by links. • User may share his notebook with other users if needed. • VNS mail tool permits user to mail and receive pages of a notebook.

  11. Database Manager • All data in VNS are stored in relational database (Sybase) on a workgroup server (WGS). • Notebook page display steps: • Hypertext program retrieves all information objects and links and creates window to display the page. • References to information objects on local WGS are directly accessed. • References to information objects on non-local WGS are resolved through mapping (object names - WGS) maintained by VNS.

  12. Database Manager (contd.) • Decentralization • Distributes processing load and disk utilization • Greater fault tolerance • Functionalities provided by Sybase • Remote procedure calls to other Sybase data-servers • Structured Query Language for searching power • Concurrency Controls • Locking mechanisms • Access controls

  13. Information Resources • Interfaces created to directly put information into notebook from standard UNIX resources (email, C Shell, Usenet etc) • Biomedical research information resources already integrated • MedLine database (medical journals distributed by National Library of Medicine) • TexSearch database (data maintained in Texas Medical Center)

  14. Information Resources (Contd) • Future development plans • Scanning printed documents and images directly into hypertext. • Integrating with graphics packages and statistical packages. • Supporting audio, video and animations.

  15. Navigation • Filtering mechanism • Hierarchical browsing

  16. Navigation (Filtering) • Filtering • Filters can be formulated as database queries for content and context. • Likely to use attribute/value tuples associated with all objects, pages and links.

  17. Navigation (Hierarchical browsing) • Hierarchical browsing. • Initially shows notebook users homepage title. • Choosing title with mouse will display another level of outlines. • A level of outline contains titles of destination pages of the links in the chosen pages.

  18. The Hierarchical Browser and a Notebook Page Navigation (Contd.) • Hierarchical browsing

  19. Conclusion • Though primarily designed for biomedical setting, it is well suited for any research environment. • System designed to facilitate progression of VNS towards a general purpose system.

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