Nuno Guimarães | ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL) (original) (raw)

Papers by Nuno Guimarães

This document briejly describes a Multimedia System capable of generating Online Learning Environ... more This document briejly describes a Multimedia System capable of generating Online Learning Environments (OLE}, namely, educational websites, through an enlertainment Interface as the lnteractive Television. Also presented are the motivations for the developmenl of the above mentioned System, the System functionalities, the system development environmenl, the conclusions andfulure work.

O objectivo desta comunica5o 6 propor um modelo de avaliaVo (PIP) da integra5o da Internet nas or... more O objectivo desta comunica5o 6 propor um modelo de avaliaVo (PIP) da integra5o da Internet nas organizaJes. Este modelo assenta em tr8s vari:iveis da integraV8o da Internet nas organizaJes: funV6es realizadas". .impolnirlcia das funJes realizadas" e fluxo das funJes realizadas" 0 modelo tern como prop6sito anabal o grau de integra80 da Internet nas organizaJes em rela50 As varidveis atlas referidas.

Des (a) fiando discursos: …, 2005

Este artigo tem como objectivo apresentar um estudo comparativo da imprensa, rádio e televisão. O... more Este artigo tem como objectivo apresentar um estudo comparativo da imprensa, rádio e televisão. O estudo é realizado com base nos modelos PHIMA e ICDT que focam-se em diferentes aspectos. O primeiro modelo tem como principais dimensões a profundidade, horizontalidade, interactividade, multimédia e acessibilidade. Por sua vez, o ICDT foca-se em duas dimensões: sofisticação e customização.

Proceedings of Online Educa, Nov 1, 1999

Cognitive Support for …, 2004

Mainstream research on educational technology has focused on the discovery of more effective ways... more Mainstream research on educational technology has focused on the discovery of more effective ways for conveying" relevant" information to students. A problem that we identified is that students often do not engage with the subject matter, especially when dealing with complex domain representations, even when high quality hypermedia resources are available. With the widespread of multimedia content and the emergence of massive information resources there is a need for powerful and effective learning tools that can ...

Proc. 8. Berliner Werkstatt Mensch-Maschine-Systeme, Berlin, Oct 1, 2009

The search for usable systems has highlighted design criteria like adaptiveness or accessibility ... more The search for usable systems has highlighted design criteria like adaptiveness or accessibility support. The systemic view of interaction, encompassing the human user, artifacts, language, methodology and training, influenced the design principles of past and current systems. However, users have been taken as black boxes, communicating with the machine through more or less sophisticated languages. The recognition of cognitive or emotional status of the user and its integration in the interaction design is the basis of the ...

This paper presents a framework for automatic production of rich Digital Talking Books (DTB). The... more This paper presents a framework for automatic production of rich Digital Talking Books (DTB). The production process converts existing audio tapes and OCR-based digitalization of text books into full-fledged, multiple synchronized, multimodal digital books. The framework deals with the content organization processes and User Interface definition. The first one identifies content units and its relations. The latter, based on abstract, yet DTB specific, pattern-based UI specifications, allows the definition of various forms of interaction yet DTB specific, pattern-based UI specifications, allows the definition of various forms of interaction and presentation, required by the diversity and constraints of targets users (e.g. visually impaired persons) and situations of use (e.g. learning). The framework also permits to balance the complexity and flexibility of the generated DTBs, in order to cope with the resources provided on the different execution platform.

O estudo dos processo de leitura em suporte digital tem adquirido renovada importância na sequenc... more O estudo dos processo de leitura em suporte digital tem adquirido renovada importância na sequencia da disseminacao de novos tipos de dispositivos e no quadro de novas preocupacoes como a satisfacao de requisitos de acessibilidade e concecao (design) universal. Este poster descreve duas ferramentas, ou versoes de ferramentas, destinadas a facilitar a analise de aspetos particulares da leitura digital atraves da concecao de experiencias em que sao modificadas aspetos como as modalidades de suporte a leitura ou os modos de apresentacao dos textos.

The submission of statements of claim is a critical procedure in civil judicial systems, where pl... more The submission of statements of claim is a critical procedure in civil judicial systems, where plaintiffs plead the court to resolve conflicts with other parties. Under the assumption that plaintiffs seek to represent themselves, we are particularly concerned with the quality of the information exchange with the court. To address this problem, we develop a method for constructing statements of claim that uses visual stories. The research adopts design science research, focusing on method construction and evaluation in a set of experiments. The results suggest the method supports the construction of coherent statements of claim and contributes to promote self-help and visual narrative in judicial systems.

HT'10 - Proceedings of the 21st ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia, 2010

IFIP – The International Federation for Information Processing

What challenges and opportunities do we face when we are to teach HCI to blind students, especial... more What challenges and opportunities do we face when we are to teach HCI to blind students, especially among sighted students, with HCI curricula having, traditionally, a strong focus on visual aspects? How do you bring accessibility to learning and teaching a course that itself addresses accessibility? These are a couple of the questions we raised when faced with this challenge. This paper presents our experience, feedback and reflection on the subject, after two cycles of the course with blind students.

Journal of Visual Languages & Computing, 1998

The editing and analysis of large concept maps requires techniques that focus simultaneously on d... more The editing and analysis of large concept maps requires techniques that focus simultaneously on different areas of the diagrams. These maps are often built as graph-based diagrams in which relations are one of the primary objects of study. Therefore, smooth transition between views focussing over different areas is needed and not supported by currently available techniques and tools. This paper proposes a technique, named Integrated Multi-Views (IMV), to address this issue. The technique offers an articulated coherence between component views, allowing arcs to flow independently of view boundaries. Redundant and irrelevant information is also automatically eliminated. IMV further permits the modification and navigation of views, supporting overlapping areas of focus in the underlying working diagram. The article initially presents the context and background work. In particular, it briefly describes a couple of tools where the technique was applied. Then, the problems with existing methods are discussed and the proposed solution is described. Finally, related work is presented and conclusions are drawn.

wscg.zcu.cz

In most current hypermedia systems, video and audio data are considered still as navigationally o... more In most current hypermedia systems, video and audio data are considered still as navigationally opaque data, without an accessible internal structure, and where no hyperlinking is performed. This article describes an object model, realized as a library of C++ classes, for the development of annotation and navigation applications in video spaces. The object model considers not only aspects related to the structuring of these materials, but ways in which they can be integrated with others (images, text, etc), enriched with ...

Meetingware is a technology that has not yet taken a significant role in the organization. There ... more Meetingware is a technology that has not yet taken a significant role in the organization. There are several reasons contributing to this situation, one of them being the lack of a generic model characterizing meetingware functionality and offering a clear path for organizational integration. This paper proposes a model characterizing in detail the different meetingware elements and corresponding functionality, so that designers and developers be able to easily incorporate them in current and future organizational software environments. The model identifies three fundamental components of meetingware: (1) roles, addressing the diversity of people and activities that we can observe in meetings; (2) resources, considering the meeting logistics as well as the group memory produced and managed by the meeting participants; and (3) process, addressing the organization of the set of activities that meeting participants must execute in order to accomplish the meeting goals. Resumo Meetingware é uma tecnologia que ainda não assumiu um papel de relevo nas organizações. Diversas razões contribuem para esta situação, sendo uma delas a falta de um modelo genérico que caracterize em detalhe a funcionalidade associada ao meetingware e ofereça um plano para a sua integração organizacional. Este artigo apresenta um modelo que caracteriza em detalhe os diferentes elementos do meetingware, assim como a funcionalidade correspondente, de modo a que designers e implementadores possam facilmente incorporar estas funcionalidades nos sistemas que utilizam e desenvolvem. O modelo identifica três componentes fundamentais do meetingware: (1) papeis, referenciando a diversidade de pessoas e actividades que se podem observar nas reuniões; (2) recursos, considerando a logística das reuniões, assim como a memória grupal produzida e gerida pelos participantes nas reuniões; e (3) processo, organizando o conjunto de actividades que os participantes numa reunião têm necessariamente que realizar de modo a atingirem os objectivos da reunião. Considering these different perspectives, it is natural that meeting participants may assume more than one role. Roles may be formally specified by the organization, result from institutionalized practices, negotiated and agreed before the meeting or assumed during meetings. The following different roles are relevant in meetings: sponsor, facilitator, participant, secretary, observer and organizational agent. Three of these roles are active during the meeting session (facilitator, participants and secretary), while the others are only passively involved in the meeting session. Next, we will describe these roles in more detail. Participant. The participants intervene in a meeting, producing and sharing various types of information such as ideas and comments. The participants have two attributes relevant within the context of the meeting: qualification and status (others, like personal attitudes are beyond our scope). The number of participants is something that contributes to characterize meetings in different genres, such as task forces, assemblies, commissions or committees, and so should be an attribute to consider when characterizing meetingware. Facilitator. The facilitator is a neutral role, accepted by the meeting participants, that carries a vast set of facilitative functions (Bostrom, et al. 1993; Clawson, et al. 1993): (1) Promoting a sense of belonging and responsibility; (2) Demonstrating selfawareness/expression; (3) Selecting and preparing the technology; (4) Hearing, clarifying and integrating information; (5) Developing and asking the right questions; (6) Maintaining the group targeted in the results; (7) Creating comfort with technology; (8) Creating an open and positive atmosphere; (9) Building harmony and relationships; (10) Presenting information to the group; (11) Demonstrating flexibility; (12) Planning and developing meetings; (13) Managing conflicts and negative emotions; (14) Understanding technology and its capacities; (15) Encouraging and supporting multiple perspectives; and (16) Directing and managing the meeting. The manner in which this role delivers its facilitative support to the meeting can be classified in the following categories: user driven (UD), when the facilitative functions are available to all meeting participants and thus there is no person specifically assigned to this role; facilitator-driven (FD), when there is one person designated to assume this role; and chauffeur-driven (CD), when the person designated to assume the facilitation role only manages the technology but not the process (Dickson, et al. 1993). The role of the facilitator is fundamental to the meeting process, and may contribute in a decisive way to its success (Nunamaker, et al. 1997; Clawson, et al. 1993; Jay 1976). Thus, it must be explicitly addressed by meetingware. Secretary. The role of the secretary is to take notes and produce a meeting report (The 3M Meeting Management Team 1994). One fundamental aspect to consider in this role is the type of technology available to take notes and produce reports, since this functionality may be centralized (C) or carried out by a group of people (distributed, D). This functionality may also be user-intensive (UI) or automated (A) by the technology (Aiken, et al. 1991; Aiken & Vanjani 1998). Sponsor. The sponsor has a fundamental, although sometimes neglected, passive role in a meeting. The sponsor is the "owner" of the meeting and, ultimately: (1) Is the repository of the meeting objectives; (2) Defines and clarifies the meeting objectives; (3) Approves the meeting agenda, set up by or in collaboration with the facilitator; (4) Reviews the meeting outcomes; (5) Provides an interface between the organization and the meeting. Some literature also mentions the role of the meeting leader (The 3M Meeting Management Team 1994). The leading role is a combination (in one person) of the sponsor and facilitator roles and thus will not be considered by us. Observer. The observer is a passive role dedicated to become aware or infer about actions, interactions and patterns of behavior in meetings (The 3M Meeting Management Team 1994). Organizational agent. The organizational agent is a role that, although being passive, produces information necessary to the meeting and is affected by the meeting outcomes. The type of information managed by the organizational agent is relevant to define the interface between the organizational and meeting systems. 5. Meeting resources Under this category we consider two fundamental components of meetingware (Figure 2): logistics and group memory. Logistics The meeting logistics includes a description of generic meeting facilities, such as physical rooms, tables, chairs, computers, networks and roomware (Streitz, et al. 1997) (e.g. liveboard (Wagner, et al. 1993)). The different room arrangements can be categorized in: office stations, meeting rooms, laboratories and conference rooms. One intrinsic characteristic of meetings, which is related to logistics, is the definition of time and place of the meeting. This classification affords defining the following meeting settings: STSP (same time/same place), STDP (same time/different place) and DTDP (different time/different place) (Beise, et al. 1992). One more category has been added to this typology, designated ATAP (any time/any place) to classify situations that cannot clearly be confined in one of the other categories. Another characteristic of meetings related to logistics is the communication mode. In the absence of technology, it will be Face-to-Face (FtF). However, meetingware supports other communication modes (Fjermestad & Hiltz 1999): Group Support System (GSS)-This situation uses software tools that structure communication and assist group decision (such as voting tools); Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)-This type of technology primarily provides support to group discussions through messages exchange (such as chat systems), although other types of support may be provided as well; Decision Support System (DSS)-A Decision Support System is focused on a person. It comprises single-user software and a single computer shared in a FtF setting. This technology may also be designated chauffeured technology (Clawson, et al. 1993). The combination of different roomware technologies has been considered influential to assert group productivity. Thus, it is necessary to characterize roomware in detail. Roomware may be classified in (Streitz, et al. 1997): individual workstations in a network (WS); a liveboard configuration, with one single computer (LB); and a combined situation, with individual workstations plus a liveboard connected in a network (WS+LB). Finally, one should also consider the level of support provided by the technology. This characteristic was defined by DeSantis & Gallupe (1987) in three levels summarized in the section 2 of this paper (1-facilitating information exchange; 2-decision modeling and

This document outlines some approaches, experiences and results of the user-interface design in s... more This document outlines some approaches, experiences and results of the user-interface design in several CSCW systems, highlighting a set of issues related with the successful user-interface design and defining a background where functional and innovative approaches to the development of synchronous cooperative systems will be experimented.

Proceedings of the IADIS International Applied Computing Conference, San Sebastian, Spain, Feb 1, 2006

In this paper we present new ways to read Digital Talking Books (DTBs). DTBs aim to provide bette... more In this paper we present new ways to read Digital Talking Books (DTBs). DTBs aim to provide better access to literary contents for the visually impaired population. However, these books offer limited capabilities when reading the book freely. Only continuous reading or jumping through sections of the text is allowed. This lack of flexibility leaves out many of the types of reading users usually do, such as those that provide the user with an overview of the book content or readings based on a specific set of key points that ...

As interfaces computador-cérebro são uma abordagem recente para comunicar e controlar dispositivo... more As interfaces computador-cérebro são uma abordagem recente para comunicar e controlar dispositivos através de actividades mentais. Este tipo de tecnologia poderá, por exemplo, ser usado no controlo de membros artificiais ou outros dispositivos ou no tratamento de algumas patologias. Para reconhecer as actividades mentais, os mecânismos de comunicação computador-cérebro necessitam analisar e processar registos da actividade cerebral, nos quais se incluem os electroencefalogramas. Nestes registos procura-se ...

tc, 2004

What challenges and opportunities do we face when we are to teach HCI to blind students, especial... more What challenges and opportunities do we face when we are to teach HCI to blind students, especially among sighted students, and having HCI curricula a traditional strong focus on visual aspects? How do you bring accessibility to learning and teaching a course that itself addresses accessibility? These are a couple of the questions we raised when we faced this challenge. This paper presents our experience, feedback and reflection on the subject.

This document briejly describes a Multimedia System capable of generating Online Learning Environ... more This document briejly describes a Multimedia System capable of generating Online Learning Environments (OLE}, namely, educational websites, through an enlertainment Interface as the lnteractive Television. Also presented are the motivations for the developmenl of the above mentioned System, the System functionalities, the system development environmenl, the conclusions andfulure work.

O objectivo desta comunica5o 6 propor um modelo de avaliaVo (PIP) da integra5o da Internet nas or... more O objectivo desta comunica5o 6 propor um modelo de avaliaVo (PIP) da integra5o da Internet nas organizaJes. Este modelo assenta em tr8s vari:iveis da integraV8o da Internet nas organizaJes: funV6es realizadas". .impolnirlcia das funJes realizadas" e fluxo das funJes realizadas" 0 modelo tern como prop6sito anabal o grau de integra80 da Internet nas organizaJes em rela50 As varidveis atlas referidas.

Des (a) fiando discursos: …, 2005

Este artigo tem como objectivo apresentar um estudo comparativo da imprensa, rádio e televisão. O... more Este artigo tem como objectivo apresentar um estudo comparativo da imprensa, rádio e televisão. O estudo é realizado com base nos modelos PHIMA e ICDT que focam-se em diferentes aspectos. O primeiro modelo tem como principais dimensões a profundidade, horizontalidade, interactividade, multimédia e acessibilidade. Por sua vez, o ICDT foca-se em duas dimensões: sofisticação e customização.

Proceedings of Online Educa, Nov 1, 1999

Cognitive Support for …, 2004

Mainstream research on educational technology has focused on the discovery of more effective ways... more Mainstream research on educational technology has focused on the discovery of more effective ways for conveying" relevant" information to students. A problem that we identified is that students often do not engage with the subject matter, especially when dealing with complex domain representations, even when high quality hypermedia resources are available. With the widespread of multimedia content and the emergence of massive information resources there is a need for powerful and effective learning tools that can ...

Proc. 8. Berliner Werkstatt Mensch-Maschine-Systeme, Berlin, Oct 1, 2009

The search for usable systems has highlighted design criteria like adaptiveness or accessibility ... more The search for usable systems has highlighted design criteria like adaptiveness or accessibility support. The systemic view of interaction, encompassing the human user, artifacts, language, methodology and training, influenced the design principles of past and current systems. However, users have been taken as black boxes, communicating with the machine through more or less sophisticated languages. The recognition of cognitive or emotional status of the user and its integration in the interaction design is the basis of the ...

This paper presents a framework for automatic production of rich Digital Talking Books (DTB). The... more This paper presents a framework for automatic production of rich Digital Talking Books (DTB). The production process converts existing audio tapes and OCR-based digitalization of text books into full-fledged, multiple synchronized, multimodal digital books. The framework deals with the content organization processes and User Interface definition. The first one identifies content units and its relations. The latter, based on abstract, yet DTB specific, pattern-based UI specifications, allows the definition of various forms of interaction yet DTB specific, pattern-based UI specifications, allows the definition of various forms of interaction and presentation, required by the diversity and constraints of targets users (e.g. visually impaired persons) and situations of use (e.g. learning). The framework also permits to balance the complexity and flexibility of the generated DTBs, in order to cope with the resources provided on the different execution platform.

O estudo dos processo de leitura em suporte digital tem adquirido renovada importância na sequenc... more O estudo dos processo de leitura em suporte digital tem adquirido renovada importância na sequencia da disseminacao de novos tipos de dispositivos e no quadro de novas preocupacoes como a satisfacao de requisitos de acessibilidade e concecao (design) universal. Este poster descreve duas ferramentas, ou versoes de ferramentas, destinadas a facilitar a analise de aspetos particulares da leitura digital atraves da concecao de experiencias em que sao modificadas aspetos como as modalidades de suporte a leitura ou os modos de apresentacao dos textos.

The submission of statements of claim is a critical procedure in civil judicial systems, where pl... more The submission of statements of claim is a critical procedure in civil judicial systems, where plaintiffs plead the court to resolve conflicts with other parties. Under the assumption that plaintiffs seek to represent themselves, we are particularly concerned with the quality of the information exchange with the court. To address this problem, we develop a method for constructing statements of claim that uses visual stories. The research adopts design science research, focusing on method construction and evaluation in a set of experiments. The results suggest the method supports the construction of coherent statements of claim and contributes to promote self-help and visual narrative in judicial systems.

HT'10 - Proceedings of the 21st ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia, 2010

IFIP – The International Federation for Information Processing

What challenges and opportunities do we face when we are to teach HCI to blind students, especial... more What challenges and opportunities do we face when we are to teach HCI to blind students, especially among sighted students, with HCI curricula having, traditionally, a strong focus on visual aspects? How do you bring accessibility to learning and teaching a course that itself addresses accessibility? These are a couple of the questions we raised when faced with this challenge. This paper presents our experience, feedback and reflection on the subject, after two cycles of the course with blind students.

Journal of Visual Languages & Computing, 1998

The editing and analysis of large concept maps requires techniques that focus simultaneously on d... more The editing and analysis of large concept maps requires techniques that focus simultaneously on different areas of the diagrams. These maps are often built as graph-based diagrams in which relations are one of the primary objects of study. Therefore, smooth transition between views focussing over different areas is needed and not supported by currently available techniques and tools. This paper proposes a technique, named Integrated Multi-Views (IMV), to address this issue. The technique offers an articulated coherence between component views, allowing arcs to flow independently of view boundaries. Redundant and irrelevant information is also automatically eliminated. IMV further permits the modification and navigation of views, supporting overlapping areas of focus in the underlying working diagram. The article initially presents the context and background work. In particular, it briefly describes a couple of tools where the technique was applied. Then, the problems with existing methods are discussed and the proposed solution is described. Finally, related work is presented and conclusions are drawn.

wscg.zcu.cz

In most current hypermedia systems, video and audio data are considered still as navigationally o... more In most current hypermedia systems, video and audio data are considered still as navigationally opaque data, without an accessible internal structure, and where no hyperlinking is performed. This article describes an object model, realized as a library of C++ classes, for the development of annotation and navigation applications in video spaces. The object model considers not only aspects related to the structuring of these materials, but ways in which they can be integrated with others (images, text, etc), enriched with ...

Meetingware is a technology that has not yet taken a significant role in the organization. There ... more Meetingware is a technology that has not yet taken a significant role in the organization. There are several reasons contributing to this situation, one of them being the lack of a generic model characterizing meetingware functionality and offering a clear path for organizational integration. This paper proposes a model characterizing in detail the different meetingware elements and corresponding functionality, so that designers and developers be able to easily incorporate them in current and future organizational software environments. The model identifies three fundamental components of meetingware: (1) roles, addressing the diversity of people and activities that we can observe in meetings; (2) resources, considering the meeting logistics as well as the group memory produced and managed by the meeting participants; and (3) process, addressing the organization of the set of activities that meeting participants must execute in order to accomplish the meeting goals. Resumo Meetingware é uma tecnologia que ainda não assumiu um papel de relevo nas organizações. Diversas razões contribuem para esta situação, sendo uma delas a falta de um modelo genérico que caracterize em detalhe a funcionalidade associada ao meetingware e ofereça um plano para a sua integração organizacional. Este artigo apresenta um modelo que caracteriza em detalhe os diferentes elementos do meetingware, assim como a funcionalidade correspondente, de modo a que designers e implementadores possam facilmente incorporar estas funcionalidades nos sistemas que utilizam e desenvolvem. O modelo identifica três componentes fundamentais do meetingware: (1) papeis, referenciando a diversidade de pessoas e actividades que se podem observar nas reuniões; (2) recursos, considerando a logística das reuniões, assim como a memória grupal produzida e gerida pelos participantes nas reuniões; e (3) processo, organizando o conjunto de actividades que os participantes numa reunião têm necessariamente que realizar de modo a atingirem os objectivos da reunião. Considering these different perspectives, it is natural that meeting participants may assume more than one role. Roles may be formally specified by the organization, result from institutionalized practices, negotiated and agreed before the meeting or assumed during meetings. The following different roles are relevant in meetings: sponsor, facilitator, participant, secretary, observer and organizational agent. Three of these roles are active during the meeting session (facilitator, participants and secretary), while the others are only passively involved in the meeting session. Next, we will describe these roles in more detail. Participant. The participants intervene in a meeting, producing and sharing various types of information such as ideas and comments. The participants have two attributes relevant within the context of the meeting: qualification and status (others, like personal attitudes are beyond our scope). The number of participants is something that contributes to characterize meetings in different genres, such as task forces, assemblies, commissions or committees, and so should be an attribute to consider when characterizing meetingware. Facilitator. The facilitator is a neutral role, accepted by the meeting participants, that carries a vast set of facilitative functions (Bostrom, et al. 1993; Clawson, et al. 1993): (1) Promoting a sense of belonging and responsibility; (2) Demonstrating selfawareness/expression; (3) Selecting and preparing the technology; (4) Hearing, clarifying and integrating information; (5) Developing and asking the right questions; (6) Maintaining the group targeted in the results; (7) Creating comfort with technology; (8) Creating an open and positive atmosphere; (9) Building harmony and relationships; (10) Presenting information to the group; (11) Demonstrating flexibility; (12) Planning and developing meetings; (13) Managing conflicts and negative emotions; (14) Understanding technology and its capacities; (15) Encouraging and supporting multiple perspectives; and (16) Directing and managing the meeting. The manner in which this role delivers its facilitative support to the meeting can be classified in the following categories: user driven (UD), when the facilitative functions are available to all meeting participants and thus there is no person specifically assigned to this role; facilitator-driven (FD), when there is one person designated to assume this role; and chauffeur-driven (CD), when the person designated to assume the facilitation role only manages the technology but not the process (Dickson, et al. 1993). The role of the facilitator is fundamental to the meeting process, and may contribute in a decisive way to its success (Nunamaker, et al. 1997; Clawson, et al. 1993; Jay 1976). Thus, it must be explicitly addressed by meetingware. Secretary. The role of the secretary is to take notes and produce a meeting report (The 3M Meeting Management Team 1994). One fundamental aspect to consider in this role is the type of technology available to take notes and produce reports, since this functionality may be centralized (C) or carried out by a group of people (distributed, D). This functionality may also be user-intensive (UI) or automated (A) by the technology (Aiken, et al. 1991; Aiken & Vanjani 1998). Sponsor. The sponsor has a fundamental, although sometimes neglected, passive role in a meeting. The sponsor is the "owner" of the meeting and, ultimately: (1) Is the repository of the meeting objectives; (2) Defines and clarifies the meeting objectives; (3) Approves the meeting agenda, set up by or in collaboration with the facilitator; (4) Reviews the meeting outcomes; (5) Provides an interface between the organization and the meeting. Some literature also mentions the role of the meeting leader (The 3M Meeting Management Team 1994). The leading role is a combination (in one person) of the sponsor and facilitator roles and thus will not be considered by us. Observer. The observer is a passive role dedicated to become aware or infer about actions, interactions and patterns of behavior in meetings (The 3M Meeting Management Team 1994). Organizational agent. The organizational agent is a role that, although being passive, produces information necessary to the meeting and is affected by the meeting outcomes. The type of information managed by the organizational agent is relevant to define the interface between the organizational and meeting systems. 5. Meeting resources Under this category we consider two fundamental components of meetingware (Figure 2): logistics and group memory. Logistics The meeting logistics includes a description of generic meeting facilities, such as physical rooms, tables, chairs, computers, networks and roomware (Streitz, et al. 1997) (e.g. liveboard (Wagner, et al. 1993)). The different room arrangements can be categorized in: office stations, meeting rooms, laboratories and conference rooms. One intrinsic characteristic of meetings, which is related to logistics, is the definition of time and place of the meeting. This classification affords defining the following meeting settings: STSP (same time/same place), STDP (same time/different place) and DTDP (different time/different place) (Beise, et al. 1992). One more category has been added to this typology, designated ATAP (any time/any place) to classify situations that cannot clearly be confined in one of the other categories. Another characteristic of meetings related to logistics is the communication mode. In the absence of technology, it will be Face-to-Face (FtF). However, meetingware supports other communication modes (Fjermestad & Hiltz 1999): Group Support System (GSS)-This situation uses software tools that structure communication and assist group decision (such as voting tools); Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)-This type of technology primarily provides support to group discussions through messages exchange (such as chat systems), although other types of support may be provided as well; Decision Support System (DSS)-A Decision Support System is focused on a person. It comprises single-user software and a single computer shared in a FtF setting. This technology may also be designated chauffeured technology (Clawson, et al. 1993). The combination of different roomware technologies has been considered influential to assert group productivity. Thus, it is necessary to characterize roomware in detail. Roomware may be classified in (Streitz, et al. 1997): individual workstations in a network (WS); a liveboard configuration, with one single computer (LB); and a combined situation, with individual workstations plus a liveboard connected in a network (WS+LB). Finally, one should also consider the level of support provided by the technology. This characteristic was defined by DeSantis & Gallupe (1987) in three levels summarized in the section 2 of this paper (1-facilitating information exchange; 2-decision modeling and

This document outlines some approaches, experiences and results of the user-interface design in s... more This document outlines some approaches, experiences and results of the user-interface design in several CSCW systems, highlighting a set of issues related with the successful user-interface design and defining a background where functional and innovative approaches to the development of synchronous cooperative systems will be experimented.

Proceedings of the IADIS International Applied Computing Conference, San Sebastian, Spain, Feb 1, 2006

In this paper we present new ways to read Digital Talking Books (DTBs). DTBs aim to provide bette... more In this paper we present new ways to read Digital Talking Books (DTBs). DTBs aim to provide better access to literary contents for the visually impaired population. However, these books offer limited capabilities when reading the book freely. Only continuous reading or jumping through sections of the text is allowed. This lack of flexibility leaves out many of the types of reading users usually do, such as those that provide the user with an overview of the book content or readings based on a specific set of key points that ...

As interfaces computador-cérebro são uma abordagem recente para comunicar e controlar dispositivo... more As interfaces computador-cérebro são uma abordagem recente para comunicar e controlar dispositivos através de actividades mentais. Este tipo de tecnologia poderá, por exemplo, ser usado no controlo de membros artificiais ou outros dispositivos ou no tratamento de algumas patologias. Para reconhecer as actividades mentais, os mecânismos de comunicação computador-cérebro necessitam analisar e processar registos da actividade cerebral, nos quais se incluem os electroencefalogramas. Nestes registos procura-se ...

tc, 2004

What challenges and opportunities do we face when we are to teach HCI to blind students, especial... more What challenges and opportunities do we face when we are to teach HCI to blind students, especially among sighted students, and having HCI curricula a traditional strong focus on visual aspects? How do you bring accessibility to learning and teaching a course that itself addresses accessibility? These are a couple of the questions we raised when we faced this challenge. This paper presents our experience, feedback and reflection on the subject.