DICE - Functionality vs. Platform Features Comparison Table

September 24, 2011 - 11:30 — admin

Previous work on OpenVCE.net to address WoSCR Community and related requirements

Initial custom selections from a range of platforms was replaced initially by a Joomla-based web portal, and finally a Drupal-based web portal was chosen by the end of June 2009 and continued to be in use to the end of 2011.

http://openvce.net/platforms-and-facilities (mapping used in OpenVCE.net mid 2009 to mid 2011)
http://openvce.net/more (alternatives explored prior to choices made by mid 2009)
http://openvce.net/openvce-rep1 (report of status at mid 2009 - after which time the only major change was to change to using MediaWiki as the Wiki rather than the "Books" in Drupal.... which continue to be provided as edited "Knowledge Books". A custom sign-sign on mechanism was crafted using web browser cookies to link MediaWiki to the Drupal user name and password use)

Discussion Forum on Alterative Platforms and Facilities

http://openvce.net/forum-alternative-platforms - Discussion Forum on Alternative Platforms and Facilities (to be used for continuation of discussion)
blank = no meaningful support
+ = moderate support
++ considerable support
? where we are unsure and may be experimenting

DICE Community Required Features versus Systems Table

Feature	Drupal	Drupal Organic Groups	Calendar Events Messaging	3D VW Meeting Space	Simplified Meeting Space	Skype
Explicit Communication
Written Messages	-?	+	+	+	+	+
Spoken Messages	-			++	+?	++
Gestural Messages	-			+	+?	+
Deictic * References	-?	+?		++	+?	+
Information Gathering
Activity Information from Objects	+			+	+	+
Activity Information from People's Bodies	-			+	-	+
Overhearing	-			+	-	-
Visual Evidence/ Feedback	+			+	-	+
Acquisition of Prepared Information	+			+	-	+
Group Awareness	+	+		+	+
Shared Access
Obtaining Resources						+
Reserving Resources and Time			+
Protecting Work
Transfer
Handoff Object* _{*=hand-over (data) object?}	+?			+	+	+
Deposit* _*(data?)	+

* Deictic - see http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deictic - Grammar. specifying identity or spatial or temporal location from the perspective of one or more of the participants in an act of speech or writing, in the context of either an external situation or the surrounding discourse, as we, you, here, there, now, then, this, that, the former, or the latter.

DICE "Facilitated By" Table

Facilitated by	Drupal	Drupal Oranic Groups	Drupal Views	Calendar Events Messaging	WYSIWYG Editor needed?	Addon Wiki needed?	3D VW Meeting Space	Simplified Meeting Space	Skype	Custom or Others
Mail
Text Chat
E-Mail
Microblogs
Telephone
Voicemail
Video Casting
Video Conf.
3D Meetings
RSS
Wiki
Blog
Newsgroups
Social Net.
App. Sharing
Calendar
File Sharing
Data Repos.

Issues to be Addressed

TBA

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Comments

September 28, 2011 - 20:35 — Jeff Hansberger

Identify technologies to support physical functions

We're not interested so much in assessing the specific platforms as we are in identifying new technologies or capabilities that are available to support each of the physical functions (explicit communication, info gathering, shared access and transfer). With OpenVCE, we were assessing the platforms to evaluate which one/s we wanted to go forward with. For DICE, we know we have to go the custom/drupal-like route so we need to identify what the state-of-the-art is so when we identify the needs and requirements for this group through the CWA, we can clearly align those requirements with the best and most suitable technology.

So if we can identify how some of the leading collaborative platforms address each of the primary functions (explicit communication, info gathering, shared access and transfer) and sub-functions (written, spoken, gestural and deitic references) while at the same time, identify the DICE team requirements for the same functions and sub-functions, it'll be clear and easy to match the appropriate technology to the team needs.

We need to do this for both synchronous collaboration (virtual environment) and asynchronous collaboration (portal). The tricky part is the seamless integration of the two and keeping it simple for the inexperienced/first-time and skeptical user.

September 28, 2011 - 20:58 — Jeff Hansberger

Table Rows

I propose a slightly different set of row variables to evaluate the different platforms. I propose instead of going all the way down to the feature level, we bump up to the physical function level of the VCE CWA for distributed collaboration. We could evaluate each platform on a scale of 1-3, 1=little to no support, 2=moderate support, 3=considerable support. We could base the score on how many and/or how well the platform features support the physical function (e.g., MOSES supports written messages, spoken messages, and some deictic references fairly well if the VOIP is working well enough and therefore would merit a 2 or 3 in Explicit communication). We then could drill down for each or selected platforms to the feature/physical object level to further explain its support for each function

October 20, 2011 - 09:17 — Jeff Hansberger

Columns to be technologies, software, or capabilities

Let's not have platforms in the columns but instead have various technologies, software, or capabilities that can be plugged in or replicated in Drupal. The trick will be to find the smallest number of columns that have the largest number of hits/checks among the function rows.

October 28, 2011 - 12:23 — Austin Tate

Skype as its own column

As part of the first attempt to complete the DICE table, we seem to have Skype figuring heavily as an "other" technology. Should we give it its own column? I meant the "Other/Custom" column to be for addins that tended to give one or two special features to augment the general more widley capable platforms under review.

October 20, 2011 - 09:22 — Austin Tate

Table Cells - blank, +, ++, ?

Any thoughts on the 1/2/3 rating it seems not quite refined enough for us... but I would like us to chat to see if there is a better way to rate this. Lets anyway go for "blank" for feature not provided (your "1") by a platform or technology. that helps make the table look less cluttered.

blank = no meaningful support
+ = moderate support
++ considerable support
? where we are unsure and may be experimenting

We coud continue to add a * where the paarticular capability has been chosen for the current OpenVCE.net setup, where there were choices.

October 28, 2011 - 23:12 — Jeff Hansberger

Messages means Communications

Austin asked: "Do we mean Written Communications, Spoken Communication and Gestural Communications? Or do we mean some means to store these and replay them at an (async) later date. I.e. is it telephone or voice mail we are looking at in spoken messages? Clearly there are different technologies for these."

Messages is the same as communication. The function of storage for later reference or retrieval is in the shared access and transfer functions.

Telephone should be used when you are talking with another person real-time. Voicemail should be added as another physical object/system under spoken messages.

October 29, 2011 - 11:23 — Austin Tate

Deictic = Presence?

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deictic

... specifying identity or spatial or temporal location from the perspective of one or more of the participants in an act of speech or writing, in the context of either an external situation or the surrounding discourse, as we, you, here, there, now, then, this, that, the former,or the latter.

Can we clarify? Do we mean presence?

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