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. 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.