A NETWORK COMPONENT ARCHITECTURE FOR COLLABORATION IN MOBILE SETTINGS

Today Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is used in broad areas of human cooperation. With the propagation of radio-based communication and ad hoc networking it may enter new areas of human cooperation. One important aspect is the new quality in CSCW of being independent from special network-enabled places. Another aspect is the more intuitive support of face-to-face cooperation utilizing personal mobile devices. To open this field of collaboration our approach featuring Distributed Cooperative Knowledge Spaces specifically addresses conceptual issues pertaining to the transition from classical, server-centered to mobile, distributed collaboration environments. With this concept we introduce persistent and personal knowledge spaces as well as so-called temporary knowledge areas and groups. Our prototypical application for spontaneous collaboration implements this approach. We are able to draw here on many years of experience in the development and testing of our concept of Cooperative Virtual Knowledge Spaces.