Component Description
CMU Note-Taker Tools
Human Computer Interaction Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Prepared by: Bill Scherlis <scherlis@cs.cmu.edu>
March 26, 1999
1
1 - Overview

Note-Taker tools will:



Support structured synchronous and asynchronous
collaborative note-taking by multiple people.
Directly integrate with presentation tools (PowerPoint), email
(IMAP-based systems), shared file areas, sensor inputs, etc.
Provide a range of asynchronous collaborative services:
•
•
•
•
•

Information awareness and update
Messaging and annotation
Task-specific shared information structures
Structural differencing
Coordination and concurrency control
Use multimedia inputs for annotation, messaging, and control
• Point, speak, request
The Note-Taker technology baseline was initially developed in the CSpace project in the ITO/IC&V program.
2
2 - Architecture Overview
Note-Taker builds on two ideas:
Assets
MM
designator
PowerPoint
Client Hosts
Clientside
controls
&
models
Email
Task
agenda
COA table
MM
designator
3

Fabric: Representation for
organizing collaborative information
and linking it with external user-app
objects.
 Fine-grain versioning
 Collaborative services
 Persistable

Situated Events: Event architecture
for linking object versions and
replicas, and for maintaining
consistency and awareness.
 Aggregation and filtering
 Logging and checkpoints
Serv
Server
Email
PowerPoint
Server(s)
Clientside
controls
&
models
Clientside
controls
&
models
3 - Component Description

Asset — An information source/sink.
• Examples: MS Office tools, task-specific note taking tools, email
archives, shared file areas, sensor information streams, etc.
• Generate situated events as state changes (e.g., in response to
direct interaction by users)
• Respond to request events from Note-Taker.

Client-Host — Maintain fabric models
• Maintain local shadows/replicas of shared collaborative
information.
• Provide user-level interaction for Note-Taker services.
• Provide view-maintenance services for visualization of models.

Server — Multicase event dispatch
• Failure-robust
4
4 - External Interfaces

Asset API
 Assets manage complex
structured objects
 Common event hierarchy

Messaging and annotation API
 Integrate with conventional
IMAP-based email
 Integrate with multimedia
sources/sinks
 Other message viewing
mechanisms (e.g., mapsituated)

Model API
 Interact with versioned fabric
model
• Change, update, request,
administrative, etc.

5
Event API
 Transmission / wrapping
beans-based events
 Event aggregation and
filtering
5 - Existing Software “Bridges”

Part 1 (Existing) - Assets include conventional
commercial tools (MS Office, NTFS).

Part 2 (Functionality) - Asynchronous collaborative
services for single-user commercial tools. Objects
with memory of past states.

Part 3 (Protocol) - An event-based interaction using
sites within assets to locate updates/changes and
requests. Sites are named hierarchically (relative or
absolute or with tags).
6
6 - Information Flow

Part 1 (with other CPOF
components) 

7
LEIF: We expect that NoteTaker will interact directly with
both LEIF Infobuses. We also
intend to experiment with
replacing the LEIF display
model with a more
semantically-rich model.
MultiModal: We will use multimodal inputs both to situate
messages/annotations/comma
nds in the information space
and to provide their contents.
Situating enables terseness,
prioritization, structural
browsing, etc.

Part 2 (inputs) 

Inputs are in the Note-Taker
event format. The hierarchy of
Note-Taker events can evolve
according to needs.
Part 3 (outputs) 
Outputs can be either NoteTaker events or views of model
structures. The API to the
model structure can be evolved
according to the needs of
visualization components.
7 - Plug-n-play

Part 1 (interacting with other
CPOF components)  Initial: CMU multi-modal
components
 Potentially:
• Viewers: Visualization tools,
directly or via LEIF.
• Assets: CPOF document
types, directly or via LEIF.

Parts 2, 3 (similarities and
complementarities) Note-Taker and LEIF:
 LEIF handles protocols and
APIs in a way that can
support Note-Taker.
 Note-Taker provides a wide
range of services not
present in LEIF:
• Collaborative services.
• Messaging and annotation.
• Structural differencing,
versioning, and history.
• Semantically rich models.
• Persistence and name mgt.
• Distributed event processing
8
8 - Operating Environments and COTS
Component
Name
Asset
Required
Hardware
Any Java
platform
Operating
System
Language
N/A
Java
Required
COTS
none
Client Host
Win NT device
Windows NT
Java
Sun Java SDK.
Win NT.
Server
Win NT device
Windows NT
Java
Sun Java SDK.
Win NT.
Asset:
PowerPoint
Win NT device
Windows NT
MS Java &
Sun Java
Win NT, Office97,
J++, Sun Java SDK
Asset:
Win NTFS
Win NT device
Windows NT
C++, MS Java,
Sun Java
Win NT, Vis C++,
J++, Sun Java SDK
Asset:
IMAP email
Win NT device
Windows NT
Java
Sun Java SDK
Note: This applies to current and evolving Note-Taker components, not new multimedia components
to be developed in CPOF/CMU or interfaces with components from other CPOF projects.
9
9 - Hardware Platform Requirement

Windows NT device

10
256 MB ram, 100MB disk (estimate, not including Office97)