Facilitating orientation in shared hypermedia workspaces

ABSTRACT

Shared workspaces are an important means for supporting long-term synchronous and asynchronous collaboration. Shared workspaces themselves become difficult to manage due to increasing size and constant change. This is especially true for shared hypermedia workspaces. Thus means for managing the shared hypermedia workspace in terms of keeping an overview of the group's work and coordinating changes become necessary.In this paper we propose a shared hypermedia workspace model representing not only shared content but also team and process related information. Four complementary tools facilitate orientation and coordination in the shared workspace: a group aware content browser, a group aware overview browser, a shared workspace search tool, and a shared process space browser. Together, these tools should enable groups to stay aware of each other's activities and to control the level of awareness according to their needs.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS

General Terms:
Experimentation, Theory

Keywords:
awareness, collaboration support, cooperative work, coordination, orientation, shared hypermedia workspace