Technology BSCW (Basic Support for Coperative Work)

This Peper was published in: 2nd International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: from Theory to Applications, ICTTA'06. Arabscholl for Science and Technology (ASST), (The Network of Syrian Scienlists, Technologists and Innovators Abroad (NOSSSTIA) and The Syrian Computer Society (SCS).

And also this published in Cibersociedaad in the following URL: http://www.cibersociedad.net/recursos/art_div.php?id=120

The education and the learning can’t be strangers to the new communication possibilities and the information access that the give to us every day. And that’s not this way just because the education has to be a formation for life and for a plenty participation in the society, a life and a marked society by the TIC use, but because the new possibilities of communication and information access, give rise to a new way of more enriching learning.

An example of this new possibilities is communicate with other people in an Internet Forum, without an agreement of the moment and in a non actual way. It allow us to share opinion and discuss about something in special, but besides open us a door to a different way of communication with the students of a class. This new non- actual way, allows to surpass the timidity and give a chance to elaborate comments that stay written in order to facilitate the reflection and analysis.

When a group of persons work in a common project, they share information. In the same way, the members of the team work can express their opinions in a forum or with an e-mail, they can do their contributions with different kina of documents, share information in common as files, and develop their activity according to their rolls in the project.

BSCW (Basic Support for Cooperative Working)

It’s a shared work space, a general application that allows to use this space to share documents in different platforms (Windows, Macintosh, Linux o Unix). You can access to a work space, go between files and get objects in the same way of the web sites.

It keeps alert all the happened successes (creation, reading or object modification), without the necessity of installing an additional software, you just need a Web Browser.

The system has been implemented in Python by CGI, and Java has been used for the synchronic service of JMonitor and for the JBrowser interface. It’s based on a client/ server architecture with the following operational scheme.

With BSCW, each person arranges a work space where can create data and reunite or invite to participate in all of them, others people that will help to finish a Project.

Basically, it contributes the following advantages developing task in a network:

1.Create places for the collaborative work between different members (geographically faro r near)
2.Restricted allow to those areas with a controlled access, allowed just to members previously registered.
3.Documents always available
4.It allows to store in the same space, all kina of objects that can be useful for the Project: text documents, data base, images, sounds, notes, comments, address list, etc.
5.BSCW makes possible to understand the web as a place where you can manipulate information in addition to read it a have access to it, because it allows its modification.
6.Once you have created a definitive document and want to make it public, it’s easy arrange it from a Web Site just including its URL, without open an FTP account..

In BSCW there are multiple objects that can be grouped in one of this three categories:

A. Shared information Objects: those that can be created and shared in a work space, and have relevant information for the collaborators of a team.
B. Public and Personal Objects: BSCW provides different personal space for each user. Also provides an accessible public space
C. Simples and Container Objects : according if they can contain objects or not.

Access rights and rolls

A BSCW access right, allows the user to make some action on an object. They can be Private or Shared. Although there are predefined access rights: members, restricted member and manager
Conclusions

There are a lot of appreciations about work collaborated platform made by the teachers, that has used it as a tool for an easier learning. A big part of it, can be applied to BSCW

In the majority of the cases, the validation is very positive, emphasizing on those advantages:

√ Big appreciation of work in collaboration and platform between the students.
√ The interactivity and support that gives the work team
√ Easy to use: it’s enough a web browser and an Internet connection
√ The possibility to leave all the work documents in a common space and access to it all the time, from home or from anyplace with an Internet access. This allows a fast and save exchange of information The possibility of discuss just with the use of forum and other tools of the platform, so the student could learn with the access to the information and the contributions of their classmates.
√ Arrange by the teacher a permanent announcement plank to post all the events, documents and news important to the class
√ Have a record of all the interventions that each student makes at each moments, that makes easy the control of the work evolution.

Some inconvenient are:

√ Need of a previous formation.
√ Difficulty that represents the preparation of contents in a new enviroment and the new information managemente that you have to do, both in a different way from the traditional one