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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Pete, a couple of weeks ago, I asked this list
about technology support for OS. I got a few responses on the list, but
one of the most intriguing was from a colleague outside the list who pointed me
to the Collaborative Virtual Workspace (CVW). This is freely available software
that enables groups of people in locations remote from one another to
collaborate. It use a "building and room" metaphor that seems to me to
make it well suited for supporting a virtual Open Space event.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>To get a feel for CVW, here's a link to an
overview:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://cvw.mitre.org/cvw/info/CVWOverview.php3">http://cvw.mitre.org/cvw/info/CVWOverview.php3</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Just to tantalize you, here are a couple of brief
excerpts:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"To a user, a CVW is a building that is divided
into floors and rooms, where each room provides a context for communication and
document sharing. CVW allows people to gather in rooms to talk through chat or
audio/video conferencing and to share text and URLs with one another with their
chat. (See figure 1 below.) Defining rooms as the basis for communication means
that users are not required to set up sessions or know user locations; they need
only enter a room. If users choose to communicate through audio, video or text,
then the communication session is established automatically for them. Users can
also lock rooms and communicate privately within and between rooms.
<P>"Rooms are also the basis for document sharing. Users can place documents of
different types into a room, allowing anyone else in that room to read the
document or view information about the document (such as creator, description,
creation date, modified date, last modified by). Persistence is supported
because the rooms exist even when no one is in them. Consequently, the document
remains in the room for future visitors to see until some authorized user moves
or deletes it. "</P>
<P>"A graphical "map" display of the floor plan is provided to help visualize
the collaboration space. Users can navigate through the virtual building
with the graphical map or with a textual command. Additionally, users can
navigate by joining a specific user, without knowing their current location in
CVW."</P>
<P>I'm not aware of CVW ever having been used for Open Space, but I'd sure be
interested in trying it out!</P>
<P>Patrick McAuley</P>
<P>PTM Consulting<BR>20 Magnolia Lane<BR>Guelph, ON N1G 4X7
Canada</P>
<P>Tel: (519) 827-9396<BR>Fax: (519) 827-0956<BR><A
href="mailto:patrick.mcauley@sympatico.ca">patrick.mcauley@sympatico.ca</A></P>
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