Informative Workspaces Jianfei Liao Nathan Britton

What is an Informative Workspace?  Information radiators Bulletin Board Lights Sounds Screens.

What are the goals?  Research  What facilitates productivity?  Lay foundation for larger project.

Why is it important?  Good Informative Workspaces can improve… Teamwork Communication Morale  Productivity.

What is the business value?  Internal Use Maximize return on HR investments  Potential future product Large displays in business environments Not limited to software development.

Why Open Source?  Incorporates many existing programs No liscencing fees Easy to modify  No necessary proprietary option.

Who is involved?  Undergraduate students Jianfei Liao Nathan Britton  Basic Software Development Experience Java Web Programming.

What is the cost so far?  70 man-hours x $12/hr = $840  ~260 kW-hrs x $0.1573/kW * = $40.90  Total costs = $ * According to Hawaiian Electric Company.

What has been produced?   Usability analysis Countdown Clock Chatroom.

Countdown Clock  Initial enthusiasm  dedicated widget Avg rating: 6/10 (8 people) Pros  Real time  Convenient reminder  Graphics Cons  Vague/Confusing (not enough info)  Hard to read  Too large  Too distracting.

Chatroom  First Implementation: Flash Chat Avg rating: 3/5 (7 people) Pros  Easy to start up  No installation/registration Cons  No chat log  New members start with nothing  Slow  Bad color.

What are the milestones?  Milestones Milestones  Cost (9 weeks) 9 x (9 +18) = 243 man-hours  $ ~470 kW-hrs x $0.1573/kWhr = $73.93 $

Why we deserve continued funding…  Small initial investment Laying the foundation Low risk  Potentially huge return Usable in-house tools Profitable service/product.