Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The parameters proposed for the style identification can be applied for the analysis
of publicly and commercially available systems that employ shared spaces for
communication/collaboration. As an example, let us consider Google Sites [27],
which is a shared spaces system created in the context of Google's E-Mail system
Gmail [28]. A Google site is a tree-structured collection of pages that can be edited
without an external tool using a browser-based interface. Other users may be invited
to collaborate as a site owner, editor or reader. Furthermore, it is possible to share a
site with everyone on the web. In the enterprise edition of Google Sites, it is possible
to give read or write access to all users of the enterprise's domain. Google Calendar is
used to delegate tasks. This can be done if the addressee of the delegation shares
his/her calendar with the delegating person. The delegating person can create tasks in
the calendar of the addressees and thus to delegate tasks to him/her.
According to the communication styles scheme suggested in section 6, Google
Sites uses the manual issuing technique (through the calendars). An invitation always
has a global scope, as it concerns the whole site. Invitations are instructive, as it is
possible to specify what has to be done in the delegated task.
From the point of view of the parameters introduced, the three systems from our
experience represent “pure” communication styles, which, of course, does not exclude
creating a mixture of styles. In fact, we are in the process of adding the automatic
issuing technique to both ProBis (based on [16]), and iPB.
The three parameters for style identification proposed in this paper give only basic
characterization of communication capabilities of a system with the shared spaces
architecture. More detailed classification is required for covering the nuances. For
example, the automatic issuing technique can be divided into two subcategories:
general rules, and instance rules. General rules ensure automatic issuing of invitation
that covers all instances of the given process type. Instance rules mean a capability to
ensure automatic invitations for a particular process instance/case. The latter are often
expressed in the form of subscription to certain events in a shared space (see, for
example, proposals for adding instance rules to ProBis in [16]).
As follows from the experience presented in the paper, different communication
styles suit different kinds of business contexts. For example, high requirements on
speed of communication, as in eForm, warrant automatic issuing technique. A complex
structure of shared spaces, as in ProBis and iPB, requires either instructiveness or
localization (or both).
To find a proper mixture of communication styles for a practical business case, the
properties of each communication style should be understood, so that the styles
are mixed based on the requirements of a particular business environment. Our
current research in progress is devoted to this task. In this research, we analyze our
experience from the point of view of business requirements that can be set on the
communication/collaboration mechanisms. Here, we differentiate several groups of
requirements: functional requirements (e.g., possibility of inviting an arbitrary person
at any moment of time), security requirements (e.g., restricting a person's capability of
viewing parts of the shared space), social requirements (e.g., support of week ties),
and business process requirements (e.g., support for predefined tasks for the given
process type).
