"Worldwide Workflow" : This project explores advanced techniques for asynchronous collaboration. The work focuses on visualization, management, and vastly scalable and robust distribution methods for shared collections of any type of information. We propose to design, prototype, and testa collaborative system based on repositories of declarative data objects (UForms) -- repositories will be replicated through the use ofrobust computational agents ("shepherds") to form a world wided ataflow of information. The model introduces an abstraction calledGRIS ("Grand Repository In the Sky). Repositories can be thought ofas imperfect portals into the GRIS. Users will view the GRIS as asource of pools and streams of information that can be manipulated inboth simple and subtle ways to form workflows and collaboration groups. Tools for visualization and configuring such a system will beexplored and attempts will be made to blend synchronous and asynchronous collaboration methods into a spectrum of tools that fadeinto the background and make the data and collaboration immediately perceptible to the user. It should be natural to collaborate -- not additional work. This project should result in new architectural principles and infrastructure components for building flexible and usable asynchronous collaborative systems as well as new user interface paradigms for configuration of asynchronous collaborative applications.
Keywords: Worldwide Dataflow, Repository, Visualization, Workflow, Asynchronous Collaboration, Information
