Intensional Collaborative Web Environments

This book addresses the general problem of
developing reliable Web applications that offer
both flexible user interfaces and shared browsing
capabilities and, specifically, the ability for
users to create and co-browse geographical,
multilingual maps.
We offer an innovative solution, in the same
setting, for combining a fully adaptable Web
mapping interface and collaborative facilities,
in a server developed for this project and described
in this book. The server integrates a mapping tool,
a database for multilingual labels, a typesetter and
an adaptable GUI, linked together using a
multidimensional "shared context", which facilitates
the addition of new functionality by slightly
modifying the context and with little or no change
to the components already present.
The results from this work are of special interest
to human-interaction experts, including map makers
and web communities specialists, as it shows how
to create interfaces with a very large number of
parameters (the context), expandable on-demand.
In addition, users can share parts of their context
among themselves to establish communities in
cyberspace.

Autorentext
PhD, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; MSc, Laval University, Québec, Canada; BSc, Iona College, New York, USA. Currently Visiting Lecturer at UNSW.

Klappentext
This book addresses the general problem of developing reliable Web applications that offer both flexible user interfaces and shared browsing capabilities and, specifically, the ability for users to create and co-browse geographical, multilingual maps. We offer an innovative solution, in the same setting, for combining a fully adaptable Web mapping interface and collaborative facilities, in a server developed for this project and described in this book. The server integrates a mapping tool, a database for multilingual labels, a typesetter and an adaptable GUI, linked together using a multidimensional "shared context", which facilitates the addition of new functionality by slightly modifying the context and with little or no change to the components already present. The results from this work are of special interest to human-interaction experts, including map makers and web communities specialists, as it shows how to create interfaces with a very large number of parameters (the context), expandable on-demand. In addition, users can share parts of their context among themselves to establish communities in cyberspace.