Design of a Real-Time Groupware Toolkit

Roseman, M. (1993)
Design of a Real-Time Groupware Toolkit. Master's thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, February. Also as Report 1993-515-20.

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Abstract

Real-time groupware systems, where several users work simultaneously with the same information, are notoriously difficult to construct. This thesis describes the design and implementation of a toolkit for building real-time groupware. Following a user-centered methodology, a number of requirements for groupware toolkits are presented. The requirements are both human-centered, such as support for work surface activities, flexible group processes, and integration with conventional work, and also programmer-centered, such as communications and a shared graphics model. Based on these requirements, a prototype toolkit called GroupKit is described. It contains three sets of components used to meet the requirements: a communications infrastructure; overlays for work surface activities; and open protocols for flexible group processes. Other concerns in the toolkit design are minimizing the developer's work; encouraging use; extensibility; and flexibility. A number of sample applications built with GroupKit are described.

Bibtex entry

@MASTERSTHESIS { 1993-Roseman.MSc,
CLASS = { THESIS },
AUTHOR = { Roseman, M. },
TITLE = { Design of a Real-Time Groupware Toolkit },
SCHOOL = { Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary },
ADDRESS = { Calgary, Alberta, Canada },
YEAR = { 1993 },
MONTH = { February },
NOTE = { Also as Report 1993-515-20 },
}