Argo: a system for distributed collaboration

ABSTRACT

The goal of the Argo system is to allow medium-sized groups of users to collaborate remotely from their desktops in a way that approaches as closely as possible the effectiveness of face-to-face meetings. In support of this goal, Argo combines high quality multi-party digital video and full-duplex audio with telepointers, shared applications, and whiteboards in a uniform and familiar environment. The shared applications can be unmodified X programs shared via a proxy server, unmodified groupware applications, and applications written using our toolkit. Workers can contact each other as easily as making a phone call, and can easily bring into a conference any material they are working on. They do so by interacting with an object-oriented, client/server conference control system. The same conference control system is used to support teleporting, i.e. moving the desktop environment from one workstation's display to another (for example, from office to home). This paper describes the system we have built to test the hypothesis that the effectiveness of remote collaboration can be substantially impacted by the responsiveness of the interaction media.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.1 Multimedia Information Systems
          Subjects: Video (e.g., tape, disk, DVI)

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.3 Communications Applications
          Subjects: Computer conferencing, teleconferencing, and videoconferencing
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.1 Multimedia Information Systems
          Subjects: Audio input/output
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Evaluation/methodology

General Terms:
Design, Management