SplashNote Systems is proposing to develop a more effective and innovative approach to project collaboration in distributed teams. The proposed system uniquely gives a non-technical user the ability to configure and structure ? within minutes ? the information context for team action as well as the functionality of the interaction. A key innovation is an intuitive Design Builder, which allows users to assemble a project page via drag-and-drop commands. Another key innovation is a transformation grammar, which converts semantic-based instructions into machine codes. The resulting technology is especially well suited to the operational requirements of NASA. A web-based architecture allows distributed teams to collaborate from anywhere with Internet access. The project portal design enables everyone on the team to share the same contextual information, and to take action based on the latest information. Importantly, the ease with which the project interface can be defined allows each project to be quickly customized to the specific interactive demands of that project. Phase I will focus on developing the design of the system, showing its feasibility, and researching the system's usability for NASA. Phase II will perform the engineering development of the system, and will result in a field-installable prototype ready for trials at NASA.
