Collaboratory Tools

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Collaboratory Tools

• Nathan Stone, Ph.D.
• Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
• Oct. 29, 2000

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Collaboratory Tools

• Our Approach
• Types of tools (to date)
• Synchronous Communication Tools
• Asynchronous Communication Tools
• Information Archives
• Source Code/Document Management
• Remote Control

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Invention or Innovation?

• Invention is the act of coming up with something
  thats potentially useful, novel and hasnt been
  come up with before. Whereas innovation is
  turning that into something that is real, thats
  used commercially.
• Arthur A. Boni
• Director of the Office of Technology Development,
  University of Pittsburgh
• The challenge is getting the two to work
  together.

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Tools Synchronous

• NetMeeting
• SGImeeting
• CU-SeeMe
• SunForum
• CCF (Collaboratory Computing Framework)
• ProShare

• RAT (Robust Audio Tool)
• InPerson
• PictureTel
• FreePhone
• VAT (Visual Audio Tool)

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Tools Asynchronous

• Majordomo mailing lists
• MHonArc mail 2 HTML
• marc-search WWW searching
• Hypermail mail 2 HTML
• Wilma WWW searching
• and a hundred personal mailer programs
  

• CorporateTime
• Calendar (CGI)
• WebCal (CGI)

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Tools Archives

• Enote (DOE 2000 Electronic Notebook)
• DocShare
• CVSweb
• LXR (Linux Cross Reference) cross-referencing
  archives for browsing

• Glimpse (file system indexer)

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Tools Archives (details)

• Enotes Notebooks (from ORNL)
• WWW-based storage and retrieval
• geared toward storing text / images
• DocShare
• WWW-based shared virtual workspace
• Enables upload/download via any browser
• Dynamic, hierarchical directory structure
• Archived, for history and recovery
• Cross-reference engine for browsing source trees

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Tools Source Management

• CVS (Concurrent Versions System)
• CVSweb
• CVS2HTML
• PerForce

• DocShare
• Ctags / Etags
• GNATS
• WREQ

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Tools Remote Control

• pcANYWHERE remote Windows
• VNC (Virtual Network Computing)
• client-server Windows AND UNIX

• Citrix client-server Windows
• VirtualPC (Mac)

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Findings

• Effective integration of tools requires both
  collaboration-readiness and tool-readiness
• There is no substitute for organization and
  shared goals
• There is no substitute for face-to-face meetings
  (yet!)

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Findings

• Code management tools were vigorously embraced
  for software management / distribution
• Data-conferencing software has proven very
  successful in facilitating coding discussions as
  well as demonstrating visualization applications
  remotely
• Audio-conferencing over the Internet is hard
• Video-conferencing over the Internet is only
  marginally useful

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Findings

• Desktops are where its at
• This mostly drives multi-platform requirements
• Free is good, but you get what you pay for
• Commodity software does not lend itself easily to
  monitoring/logging

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Collaboratory Homepage

• Get it all at
• http//collaboratory.psc.edu/
• For Tools
• Click Switch to Tools Menu in the left frame
• Select any tool to get an FAQ