2
ports. Finally, Chapter 8 briefly summarizes the results of the earlier chapters and evaluates
Palimpsest in terms of the set of requirements developed in Chapter 1.
1.2 A basic application scenario
While Palimpsest has uses for collaborative applications other than just text editing, its
origin and special features reflect the specialized collaboration support needs of document
editors. This is in harmony with a historical bias towards text editing in other collaboration
research, as well as a personal conviction that the written word has a privileged place as the
primary medium for the communication of ideas. The study of collaborative writing and
document preparation is one of the oldest sub-areas of collaboration research, with a rich
literature covering a wide range of individual and collaborative writing strategies, user-
interfaces, social issues (Sharples 1993; Sharples, Goodlet et al. 1993), and system designs.
A basic scenario for this kind of work is the following: several authors are working on the
same (hypertext or structured) document. The authors work on separate computers, which
are intermittently in contact. Any author may want to change any aspect of the document,
without being forced to wait for inter-computer communication to be established, while still
allowing the resulting changes to be integrated and harmonized at a later point. Given cur-
rent advances in structured document representation, multimedia and hypertext, such
documents may contain intricate data (sound, structured text, graphics, video) as well as
complex cross-reference structures.
This scenario highlights some of the technical needs and realities of collaborative com-
puting. Because the structure of a collaboration is ultimately controlled by the author and
not by a system, the variety of system environments and communication media to be sup-
ported is large. Infrastructures which may need to support collaborative editing may include:
• Fast LANs connecting local workstations
• Medium-speed WAN connections (e.g. direct internet access)
ports. Finally, Chapter 8 briefly summarizes the results of the earlier chapters and evaluates
Palimpsest in terms of the set of requirements developed in Chapter 1.
1.2 A basic application scenario
While Palimpsest has uses for collaborative applications other than just text editing, its
origin and special features reflect the specialized collaboration support needs of document
editors. This is in harmony with a historical bias towards text editing in other collaboration
research, as well as a personal conviction that the written word has a privileged place as the
primary medium for the communication of ideas. The study of collaborative writing and
document preparation is one of the oldest sub-areas of collaboration research, with a rich
literature covering a wide range of individual and collaborative writing strategies, user-
interfaces, social issues (Sharples 1993; Sharples, Goodlet et al. 1993), and system designs.
A basic scenario for this kind of work is the following: several authors are working on the
same (hypertext or structured) document. The authors work on separate computers, which
are intermittently in contact. Any author may want to change any aspect of the document,
without being forced to wait for inter-computer communication to be established, while still
allowing the resulting changes to be integrated and harmonized at a later point. Given cur-
rent advances in structured document representation, multimedia and hypertext, such
documents may contain intricate data (sound, structured text, graphics, video) as well as
complex cross-reference structures.
This scenario highlights some of the technical needs and realities of collaborative com-
puting. Because the structure of a collaboration is ultimately controlled by the author and
not by a system, the variety of system environments and communication media to be sup-
ported is large. Infrastructures which may need to support collaborative editing may include:
• Fast LANs connecting local workstations
• Medium-speed WAN connections (e.g. direct internet access)
