Role-Based Collaboration Extended to Pervasive Computing

Résumé En

Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) has been a hot point in researches for some decades. Recent progresses in software and hardware technologies have allowed the use of more and more advanced applications and services. It also brought computing capabilities to mobile devices such as smartphones and laptops. This has led to an extensive use of computers to collaborate in some unexpected manners. Among the abundance of models designed to support collaboration some are particularly promising: tasks models, roles models and collaboration's context models. Simultaneously the Pervasive Computing paradigm has emerged from recent researches. In this paper we propose a model to integrate the pervasive computing perspective into the collaborative work. This integration is proposed by the use of an original model: the PCSCW model (Pervasive Computing Supported Collaborative Work). This model relies on some robust concepts: a role model inspired by some recent works, a classical task model coupled to a precise resource model and the development of device collaboration rules. The resulting model provides a seamless and transparent cooperation of devices to simplify and facilitate the collaboration of humans.