Intelligent Collaboration Transparency
Encyclopedia
Intelligent Collaboration Transparency (ICT) is an application sharing
framework for sharing familiar single-user tools (applications) for collaboration purposes without modifying their source code. At the user level, unmodified heterogeneous applications can be shared and interoperated. At the system level, the application sharing middleware is able to understand the behavior of the applications being shared. The main assumption underlying this work is that allowing collaborators to use familiar single-user tools for cooperative work can reduce development, deployment, and learning costs while improving individual and group productivity.
and GVim were shared to edit the same document. As in early application sharing
systems, generality of the technical approach was pursued at this stage. A machine learning
approach was explored to understand the editors' behavior such that window events can be translated between different editors for synchronization. Operational transformation
was used for optimistic concurrency control, which allows any user to edit any part of the shared document at any time. However, due to engineering difficulties in understanding application behavior from external, only a small subset of the original editor functionality is allowed.
At a later stage (2004), a diffing-based approach was taken to specialize the framework in the domain of group editing. The result was presented in an ACM CSCW 2006 paper. The users are still allowed to edit a shared document concurrently with heterogeneous single-user editors without being constrained. A diff algorithm is called to derive edit scripts at each site. Concurrent edit scripts are merged on the fly to synchronize states of editors. As a result, users are not limited by editing commands that can be understood by the application sharing middleware. This implementation strategy significantly reduces engineering costs. In principle, any single-user editor can be shared with very little effort.
Application sharing
Application sharing is an element of remote access, falling under the collaborative software umbrella, that enables two or more users to access a shared application or document from their respective computers simultaneously in real time...
framework for sharing familiar single-user tools (applications) for collaboration purposes without modifying their source code. At the user level, unmodified heterogeneous applications can be shared and interoperated. At the system level, the application sharing middleware is able to understand the behavior of the applications being shared. The main assumption underlying this work is that allowing collaborators to use familiar single-user tools for cooperative work can reduce development, deployment, and learning costs while improving individual and group productivity.
History
The project is led by Professor Du Li and started in 2001 at Texas A&M university. Its first significant paper was published in the ACM CSCW 2002 Conference. In the system prototype, heterogeneous single-user editors such as Microsoft WordMicrosoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
and GVim were shared to edit the same document. As in early application sharing
Application sharing
Application sharing is an element of remote access, falling under the collaborative software umbrella, that enables two or more users to access a shared application or document from their respective computers simultaneously in real time...
systems, generality of the technical approach was pursued at this stage. A machine learning
Machine learning
Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, is a scientific discipline concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to evolve behaviors based on empirical data, such as from sensor data or databases...
approach was explored to understand the editors' behavior such that window events can be translated between different editors for synchronization. Operational transformation
Operational transformation
Operational transformation is a technology for supporting a range of collaboration functionalities in advanced groupware systems. OT was originally invented for consistency maintenance and concurrency control in collaborative editing of plain text documents...
was used for optimistic concurrency control, which allows any user to edit any part of the shared document at any time. However, due to engineering difficulties in understanding application behavior from external, only a small subset of the original editor functionality is allowed.
At a later stage (2004), a diffing-based approach was taken to specialize the framework in the domain of group editing. The result was presented in an ACM CSCW 2006 paper. The users are still allowed to edit a shared document concurrently with heterogeneous single-user editors without being constrained. A diff algorithm is called to derive edit scripts at each site. Concurrent edit scripts are merged on the fly to synchronize states of editors. As a result, users are not limited by editing commands that can be understood by the application sharing middleware. This implementation strategy significantly reduces engineering costs. In principle, any single-user editor can be shared with very little effort.