Powermeeting

Powermeeting is a web-based synchronous groupware which allows users to conduct group activities in a well-coordinated group process.[1][2] It integrates text and voice instant messaging and task-specific computational support to facilitate the group work. Groupware or collaborative software is aimed to assist the work of the members in the group in order to achieve a common goal.[3] Powermeeting was developed by Dr. Weigang Wang from Manchester Business School. Since it is a web-based application, no installation is required. The only prerequisite for using such application is the common skill to use a Web browser. Several groupware gadgets have been included in the system, each of which serves as a tool for a specific collaborative activity.[4] For more details about its theoretical and technical frameworks underlying the design of the system, you can visit its web site at http://www.PowerMeeting.co.uk/?utm_source=wiki&utm_medium=s&utm_campaign=h. A trial version of the system can also be accessed from the web site. A meeting process in PowerMeeting consists of a sequence of agenda items. Each agenda item is an instantiated groupware tool for its corresponding group activity. Powermeeting allows participants to join in a cooperative session as either a Session Chair or a guest/registered participant (See the figure below). Session chair has the right to create a new session, switch the session among pre-meeting, in-meeting, and post-meeting modes, and control the meeting process in the in-meeting mode. Yet as an un-registered guest or a registered participant, one can follow the meeting process (i.e. to go through each agenda item) led by the session chair (in the in-meeting mode). In the pre- or post-meeting mode, the navigation in the process structure is not coupled; participants can work on the same or different agenda items.[5]

User interface layout and access to a demo

The user interface layout of the system consists of five parts: a menu bar on the top; Agenda list, Participant list, and Group chat on the left-hand side; and the content area of a groupware tool (corresponding to a chosen agenda item) on the right-hand side (See the Figure below). The visual objects in the content area can be directly manipulated by the users. Each PowerMeeting session can be unique identified by a URL. A demo session of Powermeeting is available at: http://pm.admbs.mbs.ac.uk/powermeeting/PowerMeeting.html?session=room2&utm_source=wiki&utm_medium=s&utm_campaign=h

Task-specific groupware tools

A set of task-specific groupware tools has been included in the system (for users to create agenda items). These include 1. Brainstorm It consists of five parts:

2. Task Diagram In this section, a diagram such as a flow chart or task diagram can be easily created using the shape and arrow provided.

3. Whiteboard Whiteboard in Powermeeting functions exactly as the whiteboard in reality. Participants are allowed to post pictures, draw different shapes or type words.

4. Mind Map In this section, one can present his/her ideas in a graphical way using the squares and arrows.

5. MCDA MCDA or multi-criteria decision analysis can incorporate the preferences of the decision makers towards different criteria and generate the rankings of different alternatives in order to assist the decision makers in making the best choice.

6. microblog Microblog allows participants to post ideas, pictures, etc. and communicate with other participants.

Biography of Developer

Dr. Weigang Wang studied mathematics and information system engineering during his early university years. He received his PhD in computer science from the University of Liverpool. Before joined Manchester, he worked as research scientist at the German Research Centre for Information Technology (GMD). He was GMD site project manager for the 5 million Euro EU EXTERNAL project, focusing on information system support for virtual enterprises. His main research interest is cooperative hypermedia, which deals with all aspects of how hypermedia technologies can be used to support sharing and coordination of work between multiple users that wish to create information spaces reflecting the ideas of a community. He has designed and developed several cooperative hypermedia systems and he has served as the PC cooperative hypermedia theme chair for ACM Hypertext 2005. He was chair of the first international workshop on Computational Hypermedia and is the co-chair of the international workshop on "Web Science: Collaboration and Collective Intelligence" to be held jointly with ACM Hypertext'08. His work has appeared in some of the major journals in his field, including, ACM Transactions on Information System, Information Processing and Management, Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW), International Journal of Human Computer Studies, Expert Systems with Applications, and Journal of Network and Computer Applications.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Wang, W. (2008, June). Powermeeting: gwt-based synchronous groupware. In Proceedings of the nineteenth ACM conference on Hypertext and hypermedia (pp. 251-252). ACM.
  2. ↑ Gadea, C., Solomon, B., Ionescu, B., & Ionescu, D. (2011, July). A collaborative cloud-based multimedia sharing platform for social networking environments. In Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN), 2011 Proceedings of 20th International Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
  3. ↑ Johnson-Lenz, Peter. "Rhythms, Boundaries, and Containers:". Awakening Technology. Retrieved 30 April 1990.
  4. ↑ Hirlehei, A., Mahmoodi, H., Werner, S., Suadamara, R., Luo, Y., Ekadiyanto, F. A., ... & Hunger, A. (2010, July). Towards tailorable groupware: A systematic approach to user's requirement assessment in supporting a user-defined environment of synchronous groupware. In Professional Communication Conference (IPCC), 2010 IEEE International (pp. 50-57). IEEE.
  5. ↑ Wang, W. (2008, June). Powermeeting on common ground: web based synchronous groupware with rich user experience. In Proceedings of the hypertext 2008 workshop on Collaboration and collective intelligence (pp. 35-39). ACM.
  6. ↑ http://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/weigang.wang/personaldetails
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