Component Description

1

• Component Description
• CMU Note-Taker Tools
• Human Computer Interaction InstituteCarnegie
  Mellon University
• Prepared by Bill Scherlis ltscherlis_at_cs.cmu.edugt
• March 26, 1999

2
1 - Overview

• Note-Taker tools will
• Support structured synchronous and asynchronous
  collaborative note-taking by multiple people.
• Directly integrate with presentation tools
  (PowerPoint), email (IMAP-based systems), shared
  file areas, sensor inputs, etc.
• Provide a range of asynchronous collaborative
  services
• Information awareness and update
• Messaging and annotation
• Task-specific shared information structures
• Structural differencing
• Coordination and concurrency control
• Use multimedia inputs for annotation, messaging,
  and control
• Point, speak, request
• The Note-Taker technology baseline was initially
  developed in the CSpace project in the ITO/ICV
  program.

3
2 - Architecture Overview

• Note-Taker builds on two ideas
• Fabric Representation for organizing
  collaborative information and linking it with
  external user-app objects.
• Fine-grain versioning
• Collaborative services
• Persistable
• Situated Events Event architecture for linking
  object versions and replicas, and for maintaining
  consistency and awareness.
• Aggregation and filtering
• Logging and checkpoints

Assets
Client Hosts
Server(s)
Serv
Client-side controlsmodels
MM designator
PowerPoint
Server
Email
Client-side controlsmodels
PowerPoint
Email
Taskagenda
Client-side controls models
COA table
MM designator
4
3 - Component Description

• Asset An information source/sink.
• Examples MS Office tools, task-specific note
  taking tools, email archives, shared file areas,
  sensor information streams, etc.
• Generate situated events as state changes (e.g.,
  in response to direct interaction by users)
• Respond to request events from Note-Taker.
• Client-Host Maintain fabric models
• Maintain local shadows/replicas of shared
  collaborative information.
• Provide user-level interaction for Note-Taker
  services.
• Provide view-maintenance services for
  visualization of models.
• Server Multicase event dispatch
• Failure-robust

5
4 - External Interfaces

• Asset API
• Assets manage complex structured objects
• Common event hierarchy
• Change, update, request, administrative, etc.
• Event API
• Transmission / wrapping beans-based events
• Event aggregation and filtering

• Messaging and annotation API
• Integrate with conventional IMAP-based email
• Integrate with multimedia sources/sinks
• Other message viewing mechanisms (e.g.,
  map-situated)
• Model API
• Interact with versioned fabric model

6
5 - Existing Software Bridges

• Part 1 (Existing) - Assets include conventional
  commercial tools (MS Office, NTFS).
• Part 2 (Functionality) - Asynchronous
  collaborative services for single-user commercial
  tools. Objects with memory of past states.
• Part 3 (Protocol) - An event-based interaction
  using sites within assets to locate
  updates/changes and requests. Sites are named
  hierarchically (relative or absolute or with
  tags).

7
6 - Information Flow

• Part 1 (with other CPOF components) -
• LEIF We expect that Note-Taker will interact
  directly with both LEIF Infobuses. We also intend
  to experiment with replacing the LEIF display
  model with a more semantically-rich model.
• MultiModal We will use multi-modal inputs both
  to situate messages/annotations/commands in the
  information space and to provide their contents.
  Situating enables terseness, prioritization,
  structural browsing, etc.

• Part 2 (inputs) -
• Inputs are in the Note-Taker event format. The
  hierarchy of Note-Taker events can evolve
  according to needs.
• Part 3 (outputs) -
• Outputs can be either Note-Taker events or views
  of model structures. The API to the model
  structure can be evolved according to the needs
  of visualization components.

8
7 - Plug-n-play

• Part 1 (interacting with other CPOF components) -
• Initial CMU multi-modal components
• Potentially
• Viewers Visualization tools, directly or via
  LEIF.
• Assets CPOF document types, directly or via
  LEIF.

• Parts 2, 3 (similarities and complementarities) -
• Note-Taker and LEIF
• LEIF handles protocols and APIs in a way that can
  support Note-Taker.
• Note-Taker provides a wide range of services not
  present in LEIF
• Collaborative services.
• Messaging and annotation.
• Structural differencing, versioning, and history.
• Semantically rich models.
• Persistence and name mgt.
• Distributed event processing

9
8 - Operating Environments and COTS
Any Java platform
none
Asset
N/A
Java
Sun Java SDK. Win NT.
Client Host
Win NT device
Windows NT
Java
Sun Java SDK. Win NT.
Server
Win NT device
Windows NT
Java
Asset PowerPoint
MS Java Sun Java
Win NT, Office97, J, Sun Java SDK
Win NT device
Windows NT
Asset Win NTFS
C, MS Java, Sun Java
Win NT, Vis C, J, Sun Java SDK
Win NT device
Windows NT
Asset IMAP email
Java
Sun Java SDK
Win NT device
Windows NT
Note This applies to current and evolving
Note-Taker components, not new multimedia
components to be developed in CPOF/CMU or
interfaces with components from other CPOF
projects.
10
9 - Hardware Platform Requirement

• Windows NT device
• 256 MB ram, 100MB disk (estimate, not including
  Office97)