1 Component Description CMU Note-Taker Tools Human Computer Interaction Institute Carnegie Mellon University Prepared by: Bill Scherlis 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), (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/IC&V program.

3 2 - Architecture Overview PowerPoint COA table Task agenda Client- side controls & models 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 Server Client- side controls & models Client- side controls & models PowerPoint MM designator Client HostsServer(s) Serv

4 3 - Component Description Asset — An information source/sink. Examples: MS Office tools, task-specific note taking tools, 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 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/comma nds 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 Component Name Required Hardware Operating System Language Required COTS Asset Any Java platform N/AJava none Client HostWin NT deviceWindows NTJava Sun Java SDK. Win NT. ServerWin NT deviceWindows NTJava Sun Java SDK. Win NT. Asset: PowerPoint Win NT deviceWindows NT MS Java & Sun Java Win NT, Office97, J++, Sun Java SDK Asset: Win NTFS Win NT deviceWindows NT C++, MS Java, Sun Java Win NT, Vis C++, J++, Sun Java SDK Asset: IMAP Win NT deviceWindows 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.

Hardware Platform Requirement Windows NT device 256 MB ram, 100MB disk (estimate, not including Office97)