06/26/22 http://aspen.csit.fsu.edu/project/cct utorialjan01 1 Tutorial on Web-Based Collaborative Tools Introduction March 1 2001 ERDC Vicksburg Geoffrey Fox, Ahmet Uyar Florida State University Department of Computer Science and CSIT (School of Computational Science and Information Technology) 400 Dirac Science Library Tallahassee Florida 32306-4120 [email protected]
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8. HearMe Voice over IP including demo9. Access Grid high end audio-video conferencing10. Instant Messengers (Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Jabber)11. Calendars and Schedulers12. Palmtop Interfaces and Comments on Palmtop
Technology13. Portals for education and computing.
What are we Trying to do I? Build web-based support for people to interact with each other
and with other resources: computers, documents, instruments This was originally called a Collaboratory by Bill Wulf in a
famous Science article in volume 261, 13 Aug 1993 We must do this while technology is rapidly changing and
while we are not certain what collaborative tools, scientists will actually use i.e. requirements are not known
We will find a set of successful capabilities where some consensus exists as to what they do and how they look to users – these are typically (now) commercialized
There are some clearly useful technologies and standards on which to build – we will mention these en passant
Need to identify those areas where there is a potential requirement and Industry will not provide (or render our solution invalid) in next year or so
What are we Trying to do II?Object Web technology suggests how systems ought to
built today– Program in Java– Data Structures in XML– Use multi tier architecture
There are some important internet trends which suggest where systems will go – – Bandwidth and latency of networks (Gilder’s law)– growing use of Palmtop devices
Advising you as to what systems work and how to support them
Discussing differences and similarities between support of training, administration and research
Use of Object Technology in Computing II Coarse Grain objects characterized by modest latency ( but
maybe high bandwidth) are where you use Object web technology immediately– All programs, sensors, datasets, simulations are objects
There are many competing object models -- Java, COM, CORBA, SOAP but doesn’t matter -- use XML to define all objects -- we can convert– Data format is not 16I5 or 8F10.4 or even a Java or C++ data
structure -- it is defined in XML. This ensures interoperability between sensors and programs
Objects can have multiple views -- Oracle can think in rows and columns; the user as a correlated time series -- Internet technology filters convert very easily
Each Science field should set these XML based coarse grain object standards for its area– IMS and ADL are doing this for education and training.
Aspects of Collaboration Collaboration means Sharing and we identify three classes of
capability– Share the people: Audio/Video Conferencing– Basic Tools: email, Instant Messenger, Bulletin Boards, White board– Shared resources i.e. shared objects (Basic tools are special case where
object is a text message or simple drawing) Objects can be shared in several ways
– Shared display– Shared export– Shared event
Which trade off ease of use versus flexibility versus ease of implementation
If we share objects and we have a lot of them, then we must have management capabilities so we can store and retrieve them– Management issues have special needs in some areas e.g. store grades and
Consider a computer program (object above) and then its output and input wend their way through multiple filters(tiers) until they are finally rendered onsome sort of device: CAVE through PDA.
All forms of Collaboration are Event based– Different modes: Display, Export, “Event” correspond to events
generated at different places in object rendering pipeline Shared Display – Events contain updates to frame buffer Shared “Event” – Events contain updates to state of either
original or transformed object Shared Export – Convert (rendering of) object to some
standard form that is more flexible than bitmap of Shared Display. Build a custom sharing for this exported form– WebeX uses “patented sharing of virtual printer” which is
equivalent to sharing export to PDF– I like shared HTML (web pages) or SVG described later
Objects are all “copies” of each other with events maintaining state Result can be identical or different renderings – e.g. one can choose on subscribing client to resize rendering to a larger (so
Technology Trends and Principles All performance and capability measures of infrastructure
continue to improve Gilder’s law says that network bandwidth increases 3 times
faster than CPU Performance (Moore’s Law) The Telecosm eclipses the Microcosm ….
George Gilder Telecosm : How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World (September 2000, Free Press; ISBN: 0684809303, #146 in Amazon Sales Jan 15 2001)
Palm Tops help define Client Model One needs to design web
systems so they can be accessed from either a PDA or a PC or a Powerwall
This implies that only code in browser should be that immediately needed to relay events between user and web system – all “logic” (state) should be outside browser.
Supports Server based Computing model with clients “just” for rendering
Requirements of Collaboration II Need to support both synchronous and asynchronous models in
an integrated fashion– Some think asynchronous web based education will replace conventional
methods– Maybe role of synchronous (teacher-student interaction) shifts from
lecturing to mentoring– Implies need to archive synchronous sessions for later replay– Implies build collaborative portals
Need to support PDA and PC seamlessly– Define content in XML and use style-sheets or other transformation tools
to map into HTML (PC) or WML (PDA)– This is part of portalML
Collaboration implies sharing objects – the better object structure exposed, the better sharing is possible– So define everything you can in XML (ResourceML)– We can share Word/PowerPoint best in Web or SVG form as this is
universal export. Could build a custom office sharing tool but hard
Summary of Architecture Multi-tier with resourceML to define Objects and portalML to
define client server interface and dissociate Object and its rendering
Server side logic to allow range of clients and exploit increasing network bandwidth– Automatically gives universal archiving
Publish/Subscribe can be used as universal mechanism for synchronous and asynchronous collaboration– “only” need latencies of fractions of a second as this built
already due to browser update time, long distance transmission time etc. (JMS latencies around 0.1 second for modest size message going from publisher to subscriber)
– Will need multicast (not in JMS) to scale to lots of clients Naturally supported by event based model of computing with all
transactions expressed as time stamped messages (events) which are archived and forwarded by middle tier
October 19 2000: WebEx Communications, Inc. the leader in communications infrastructure for Web meetings, today announced record results for its third quarter, ending September 2000. WebEx added more than 700 new customers this quarter, bringing the total number of customers to more than 1800.
During the third quarter, AT&T and Global Crossing announced the integration of WebEx services into their communications solutions, and Commerce One announced that WebEx services have been integrated into their next generation Commerce One.netTM. WebEx's list of new customers this quarter contains industry leaders in aerospace, automotive, computer software, computer hardware, consulting services, financial services, healthcare, real estate and legal services. New customers include 3-M, Aberdeen Group, Ace Hardware, Altera, Associated General Contractors (ACG), BancTec Inc., Blue Martini, Briggs & Stratton, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., CheckFree Corp., Cosine Communications, Emory University, Enron Energy Info Solutions, Fiserve, Inc., FleetBoston Financial, Forrester Research, Grubb & Ellis, Hewlett-Packard, Keystone Solutions, Kyocera Wireless Corp., Medtronic, Motorola, NEC America, Nexprise, Proxicom, Razorfish, Sunguard, Toyota Motors, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, ZDNet and Ziff-Davis among others.
Commercial Collaboration and Training Systems II Oct. 12, 2000-- Centra the world's leading provider of software infrastructure and
ASP services for live eLearning and Internet business collaboration, today announced results for the third quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2000.
Centra added 73 new customers in the third quarter, bringing the total customer base to 350 accounts. Some highlights include:
Centra continues to grow its extensive customer base, serving more than one million users across all industry sectors and geographies. Contributions to this rapid growth in the third quarter were highlighted by:
The selection of Centra by Andersen Consulting, one of the world's largest professional services firms, as the company's standard infrastructure for the delivery of live eLearning to the company's 65,000 employees.
A significant initial deployment at Coca-Cola Company, the world's largest soft drink provider with over 35,000 employees, to provide eLearning delivery infrastructure for global SAP end user training and ongoing change management initiatives.
Siemens AG selected Centra as the corporate eLearning and collaboration standard to support communications and planning among the company's top 1,500 global operations executives. In addition, Siemens, which operates in over 190 countries, will use Centra to support their extensive SAP rollout through hands-on end user training over the Internet.
Learning Management Systems Learning Object standards ADL and IMS from DoD
and education community Most education and training stresses asynchronous or
web support for conventional delivery WebCT Blackboard Lotus(IBM) and others offer LMS
systems with limited synchronous capability– Support typical educational needs like grading, quizzes,
homework, glossaries, group email– Varying database backend and– Varying authoring support
Popular with colleges as supports not so expert faculty DoD use less clear as don’t need homework etc. No built in support for areas like “programming labs”
Learning Objects Given changing technology, need standards to protect
investment in authoring and administrative data generated and stored in databases
Educational Environment Educause set up IMS – http://www.imsproject.org Instructional Management System with selection of companies and universities– IMS focus was changed to drop implementation work and
is now “Global Learning Consortium” Inc. Department of Defense (which has huge training needs) set
up ADL Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative– www.adlnet.org whose links section includes all other
useful URL’s IEEE (Computing Community) set up P1484 Learning
Areas (Object Properties) Covered Metadata from IEEE and IMS
– Roughly Properties of educational objects thought of as “documents” (author, title …)
Course Packaging from SCORM and IMS– How to form bigger units of instruction from smaller units– Called Content Packaging by IMS and Course Structure Format
(CSF) by SCORM which goes in greater depth than IMS Tests and Quizzes from IMS Specialized CSF descriptors from SCORM (via CMI)
– Such as objectives, prerequisites, completion requirements LMS Runtime API from SCORM – I am doubtful about value Enterprise Properties from IMS
– Link to people and organization databases (rather incomplete at present but must be important as probably can agree)
Audio-Video Conferencing In Tango training, audio-video conferencing was
always problematical– Video may or may not be necessary – Internet only supports
“postage stamp” talking heads– Audio only requires a few kilobits per second but quality of
service critical and not likely to be supported on current Internet
HearMe desktop audio: Support general mix of internet and “ordinary” phone lines which have:– Quality of service and good echo canceling etc. on high-end
phones– Should work with modem (28.8 kilobits per second)
Access-Grid community audio/video: Supports multiple high-quality audio and video streams – Each client client needs 20 megabits per second
Real Time Collaborative Systems Real time situations demand immediate response from
anywhere expert– spacecraft reports unexpected problem – IMT test surprise– Commanders or field personnel in Crisis
Management– Scientific analysis during aftershocks of Earthquake
Collaboration (must bring in special expert) and support of diverse displays – maybe critical person only has Palmtop – are particularly important in these application– Synchronous and asynchronous
Portals in Computing and Education Merrill Lynch predicts that
Enterprise Information portal market will be $15B by 2002
Unfortunately it is not trivial to re-use some key commodity systems as they do not provide the right level of interfaces to add capabilities like collaboration and security
We must adopt architecture that maximizes chance that can use new commercial capabilities when they become available– Multi-media, Handheld
infrastructure are areas where industry ahead of academia
Hardest ProblemWish to re-usecomponentsbetweenEducation andComputing
PET Computing Portal: Driving RequirementsGoal is to maximize productivity of
(Super)computer center user Provide in a single web interface “myPET”, all
resources needed for HPCMO and DoD Research and Computing– Display Sensor results– Initiate and visualize simulations– Necessary information -- from program documentation to
latest technical reports– Contact colleagues in real-time (audio/video
conferencing) or asynchronously (email etc.)– Support access from hand-held (Palm) devices– Allow customization of choice and arrangement of
Services in Computing Portals Security Fault Tolerance Object Lookup and Registration Object Persistence and Database support (as in EIP’s) Event and Transaction Services Collaboration among scientists around world Job Status as in HotPage (NPACI) and myGrid (NCSA) File Services (as in NPACI Storage Resource Broker)
– Support (XML based) computational science specific metadata like MathML, XSIL
Visualization Programming Application Integration (chaining services viewed as backend compute
filters) “Seamless Access” and integration of resources between different
users/application domains Parameter Specification Service (get data from Web form into Fortran
A Sample Collaboratory Here is a sample collaboratory designed for “HallD”
– a proposed experiment at DoE’s Jefferson Laboratory
HallD produces 1015 data or simulation objects per year
HallD involves hundreds of scientists around the country collaborating in taking data, processing it and analyzing it to find nifty science breakthroughs
One first would establish HallD Digital Object Standard covering everything from LED on experimental apparatus, data produced in each part of apparatus, plots and other analysis artifacts, presentations and papers
MyHallD Collaborative PortalMyHallD is the portal door to the
– Virtual HallD Experiment Control Room– Virtual HallD Monte Carlo Farm– Virtual HallD DST Factory– Virtual HallD Physics Engine– Virtual HallD Board Room– HallD Education and Outreach Area
These share access to HallD digital objects but access (and make) them in different ways and are optimized in different ways
They share certain features and services– All actions are logged (in XML) and archived– Common security infrastructure– Access can be from PC or Hand Held device
MyHallD would have:– “Handles” to open 6 Community Virtual Places as well
as ability to open private virtual rooms– HallD/Jefferson/HEP Calendar, Phone lists etc.– News Items with browser links– Experiment Status etc.– Invoke basic Collaboration Tools – Internet Phone;
Local and remote cameras; Chat; Whiteboard– Automatic Update (to myHallD) Feature– Indicator as to which places you are in and who else is
active there.– To do list for you in HallD– Gentle and Crass ways of getting people’s attention
Features of Virtual MyHallD Places HallD Board room can be done today for some capabilities
using WebEx Placeware or Centra DST Factory and Monte Carlo Farm do not require
significant synchronous collaboration; build computing portals for standard Physics packages– Need strong management functions
HallD Physics Engine could benefit from innovative user interfaces and collaboration in analysis of results– Here is where difficult decisions made (how to run
Minuit optimization program) and distributed experts could be useful
– Share analysis results and choice of parameters for future large analysis (which partial waves to include)
HallD Education and Outreach can use Virtual Classroom model being developed by several vendors
Features of Virtual MyHallD PlacesVirtual Experiment Control Room could be a big
win as (unexpected) real-time decisions need “experts-on-demand”– Similar model with DoD and IMT experiments or
NASA for remote spacecraft mission control and real-time scientific analysis of earthquakes
– Needs to evaluate collaborative decision making (vote?) and planning tools
– Needs to allow shared streaming data as well as shared read-outs of experimental monitors (output of all devices must be distributed objects which can be shared)
– Needs to support experts caught on their sailboat with poor connectivity or in their car with just a cell phone and a PDA