Speak First, Then What? - Collaborative Technologies and Applications for Interactive Information Design - page 165

need for review, most commented on, most
active, required to complete the process
step / topic, close to expiration etc.)

ments marked “Completed” that are use cases or
reference use cases. He can also see who posted
the most use cases, who performed the most peer
reviews, and who is an expert on use cases. This
collection allows Des to dive into the topic con-
tent and the human aspects quickly. There even
is a forum specifically for this topic where he can
post questions.

• timeline of current documents on the

topic, displaying the latest document ac-
tivities, with different color codes for the
kind and status of documents

• highlighted single documents , usu-

ally with a short description and their
thumbnail Follow the Flow

• highlighted users with a short summary of

their profile An enhanced repository should offer a greater

flexibility in structuring the document cloud. Typi-
cally, documents are stored in the hierarchical tree
structure known from most file systems: files and
folders. Users are familiar with the concept, and
know how to navigate it. Users also know that in
large repositories, finding the right information
is a formidable task.
A different way of storing documents is by tags.
Authors can use and define tags freely, in essence
flattening the document cloud into a collection of
top-level folders (the tags). As appealing as this
approach is, it does not really help, since now
finding the right tag becomes critical.
A robust alternative approach could be to map
the project process onto the repository. The process
could become the backbone of the repository.
It would be aware of where in the process the
project is, and automatically suggests that step as
the home of the current version of the document.
A document's context would be the basis for the
search. Each process step would have required
and optional documents, which could be hard
wired into the repository. When a user is looking
for a document, she could step along the process
map, accessing the list of documents the process
requests. Here, she could find relevant informa-
tion much faster than through a tree structure.
This approach would also facilitate automated
completeness checks.
Each process step would have a front page
containing an excerpt from the project plan as a
time line, displaying major activities and associ-

• statistics in numeric and graphical form

an • online forum in which the topic itself

can be discussed

• RSS links to all these elements and the fo-

rum page itself (the RSS subsystem gener-
ates a snapshot of the front page one a day
at a defined time and converts it into a RSS
post)
additionally, the front page contains some- •

what static information about the topic, e.g.
the process step, its definition and training
material

Topics would provide a way to slice and dice
the document cloud with sensitivity to a specific
perspective. Topics could include “user testing”,
“use cases”, “executive communication” etc.
Typically, a tag or keyword subsystem imple-
ments topics.
Figure 7 is a mockup of a possible front page
for the topic “ Project Management ”:
Des is in need of understanding all existing
work on use cases. The front page of the reposi-
tory provides him with a dropdown list of the most
popular topics. “Use Cases” is not one of them,
so he navigates to the “List of Topics”, where he
quickly finds what he is looking for.

Navigating to the front page for the “Use Cases”
topic, he is presented a typical portal page show-
ing a list of the most recently changed use cases,
those that are not completed, a list of all docu-