Research on the infrastructure system which allows users to build their own groupware without programming

随着万维网的普及，基于Web的群件系统在Internet上得到了广泛的应用。我们相信，如果用户不仅利用这些系统，而且对它们进行改造和改进，这些系统将更加有用。我们也期望这样的系统将有助于用户在知识开发中的协作。通常，有两种方法有一个群件系统：开发一个系统设计订购，和购买一个商业产品。然而，在这两种方式中，都很难以低成本拥有一个易于使用的群件系统。我们注意到办公室工作人员如何使用一个白色板。一方面，他们利用它的原始功能;他们写的话，画的图片，并在白色板上打勾磁铁。另一方面，他们将联合收割机的白色纸板与乙烯基胶带和纸片结合起来，使其本身不具有各种信息共享工具。受这种使用方式的启发，我们一直在开发一个基础设施系统，Visual Meta Groupware（简称VMG），它允许用户在不编程的情况下构建自己的群件。该系统提供基本的可视化组件，每个组件实现群件系统的基本功能。用户可以将一些组件放在Web浏览器窗口中的Java applet上，以便将功能集成到单个组件系统中，就像他们将乙烯基磁带和磁铁放在白色板上一样。我们还实现了一个原型系统，并进行了实验，以确认其有效性。顺便说一句，有几个案例的群件系统，采用类比白色板。然而，这样的系统仅模拟白色板的原始功能以允许用户在白色屏幕中输入字母和数字。此外，对于为群件提供基础结构的操作系统，已经有几个建议。与他们不同的是，我们的研究集中在一个基础设施上，最终用户可以建立自己的群件。

As World-Wide Web becomes popular, Web-based groupware systems are widely used on the Internet. We believe that the systems will be more useful if the users not only take advantage of them but also reconstruct and improve them. We also expect that such systems will be helpful for the users to collaborate in knowledge development.Coventionally, there are two ways of having a groupware system : developing a system designed to order, and purchasing a commercial product. In both ways, however, it is difficult to have an easy-to-use groupware system at a low cost.We noticed how office workers use a white board. On one hand, they take advantage of its original function ; they write words, draw pictures, and tick magnets on the white board. On the other hand, they combine the white board with vinyl tapes and pieces of paper t have various information-sharing tools themselves.Inspired by this manner of use, we have been developing an infrastructure system, Visual Meta Groupware (or VMG for short), which allows users to build their own groupware without programming. This system provides basic visual components, each of which implements a function essential to a groupware system. The users can place some of the components on a Java applet in a Web browser window in order to integrate the functions into a single groupware system, in the same feeling as they put vinyl tapes and magnets together on a white board. We have also implemented a prototype system and conducted experiments to confirm its effectiveness.Incidentally, there have been several cases of groupware systems that adopt analogy with white boards. However, such a system only simulates a white board's original function to allow users to input letters and figures in a white screen. In addition, there have been several proposals for operating systems that provide infrastructures for groupware. Unlike them, our research focuses on an infrastructure on which end-users can build their own groupware.