Component Description CMU NoteTaker Tools Human Computer Interaction

Component Description CMU Note-Taker Tools Human Computer Interaction Institute Carnegie Mellon University Prepared by: Bill Scherlis <scherlis@cs. cmu. edu> March 26, 1999 1

1 - Overview n Note-Taker tools will: l l l Support structured synchronous and asynchronous collaborative note-taking by multiple people. Directly integrate with presentation tools (Power. Point), email (IMAP-based systems), shared file areas, sensor inputs, etc. Provide a range of asynchronous collaborative services: • • • l 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/IC&V program. 2

2 - Architecture Overview Assets MM designator Power. Point Client Hosts Clientside controls & models Email Task agenda COA table MM designator 3 n Fabric: Representation for organizing collaborative information and linking it with external user-app objects. l Fine-grain versioning l Collaborative services l Persistable n Situated Events: Event architecture for linking object versions and replicas, and for maintaining consistency and awareness. l Aggregation and filtering l Logging and checkpoints Server Email Power. Point Server(s) Note-Taker builds on two ideas: Clientside controls & models

3 - Component Description n 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. n 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. n Server — Multicase event dispatch • Failure-robust 4

4 - External Interfaces n Asset API l Assets manage complex structured objects l Common event hierarchy n Messaging and annotation API l Integrate with conventional IMAP-based email l Integrate with multimedia sources/sinks l Other message viewing mechanisms (e. g. , mapsituated) n Model API l Interact with versioned fabric model • Change, update, request, administrative, etc. n 5 Event API l Transmission / wrapping beans-based events l Event aggregation and filtering

5 - Existing Software “Bridges” n Part 1 (Existing) - Assets include conventional commercial tools (MS Office, NTFS). n Part 2 (Functionality) - Asynchronous collaborative services for single-user commercial tools. Objects with memory of past states. n 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). 6

6 - Information Flow n Part 1 (with other CPOF components) l l 7 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. Multi. Modal: We will use multimodal inputs both to situate messages/annotations/comman ds in the information space and to provide their contents. Situating enables terseness, prioritization, structural browsing, etc. n Part 2 (inputs) l n Inputs are in the Note-Taker event format. The hierarchy of Note-Taker events can evolve according to needs. Part 3 (outputs) l 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.

7 - Plug-n-play n Part 1 (interacting with other CPOF components) l Initial: CMU multi-modal components l Potentially: • Viewers: Visualization tools, directly or via LEIF. • Assets: CPOF document types, directly or via LEIF. n Parts 2, 3 (similarities and complementarities) Note-Taker and LEIF: l LEIF handles protocols and APIs in a way that can support Note-Taker. l 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 8

8 - Operating Environments and COTS Component Name Asset Required Hardware Any Java platform Operating System Language N/A Java Required COTS none Client Host Win NT device Windows NT Java Sun Java SDK. Win NT. Server Win NT device Windows NT Java Sun Java SDK. Win NT. Asset: Power. Point Win NT device Windows NT MS Java & Sun Java Win NT, Office 97, J++, Sun Java SDK Asset: Win NTFS Win NT device Windows NT C++, MS Java, Sun Java Win NT, Vis C++, J++, Sun Java SDK Asset: IMAP email Win NT device Windows NT Java Sun Java SDK 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. 9

9 - Hardware Platform Requirement n Windows NT device l 10 256 MB ram, 100 MB disk (estimate, not including Office 97)