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The CESAR Project. Wolfgang Appelt GMD - German National Research Centre for Information Technology Sankt Augustin. CESAR Goals. Provision of a Comprehensive toolkit for asynchronous and synchronous multimedia collaboration Based on Internet and WWW technology
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The CESAR Project Wolfgang Appelt GMD - German National Research Centre for Information Technology Sankt Augustin
CESAR Goals Provision of a • Comprehensive toolkit for asynchronous and synchronous multimedia collaboration • Based on Internet and WWW technology • Assembly and integration of state-of-the-art technology • Smooth transition between asynchronous and synchronous modes of cooperation • Cross-platform interoperability • Particular target groups: Trans-European research projects Marketing name : BSCW
CESAR Consortium • Two development partners:- GMD (German National Research Centre for Information Technology)- SISU (Swedish Institute for Systems Developments) • Two User Support / Evaluation partners- horz informatik (Germany)- QuantiSci (UK) • Users groups- I*EARN (Schools)- COBRA/HIPS (TAP Projects)- OSP (Physicians/Hospitals)
BSCW - Basic Support for Cooperative Work • Groupware system based on the Shared Workspaces approach: • Container for information belonging to work tasks • Environment for (self-organised) groups • Members deposit relevant information (documents, note, spreadsheets, etc.) in the Workspaces • Members coordinate their cooperation (to a large extent) via the Shared Workspace • Primarily asynchronous cooperation • Particular approach of BSCW: • System based on Word-Wide Web (WWW)
Technical Approach of BSCW • Usual client/server architecture with BSCW Server and BSCW Client • BSCW Server: Extension of normal WWW server with Shared Workspace functionality • BSCW Clients: Users contact Shared Workspaces with normal WWW Browsers
Functionality of BSCW System • Administrational / organisational features • Creation of Shared Workspaces • Hierarchical structure of workspaces (folders) • Management of groups (add/delete members) • Information about activities in the workspace (awareness) • Operations • File transfer from local system to workspaces • Direct editing of (text) documents on BSCW server • Version management of documents • Document format conversion • Discussion forums • Search (BSCW objects, WWW)
Functionality of BSCW System (cont.) • Security features • Access control (user name, password) • Different access rights • Synchronous communication • Meeting objects • Interface to synchronous tools • And more ... • System administration tools
Self-organizing groups Folders URLs Documents Discussions Event History BSCW User Interface
Awareness Features • Event indicators provide activity awareness • Email notification • users can subscribe interest • receive „daily workspace activity report“ • “Monitor“ Applet (Java) • user presence awareness • realtime activity awareness • allows to contact online users (chat session, message)
History of BSCW System • First public release in October 1995 • Currently version 3.2 (3.3 June 1999) • Public accessible BSCW Server (http://bscw.gmd.de) • Ca. 18,000 registered users • Ca. 25,000 requests / 350 MB data exchange per day • Additional BSCW Server installations (several thousand downloads of server code) • Several ten thousands of users world-wide • Spin-off company: OrbiTeam Software GmbH • EC funding: CoopWWW (96-97), CESAR (98-99) • Used by many EC funded projects (e.g., project management)
Current Focus of CESAR • Java - based user interface • Enhanced awareness features • Session management services • Presentation management services