Supporting scientific analysis within collaborative problem solving environments

This paper first lists some features of scientific analysis tools that are important for effective analysis in CPSEs (collaborative problem solving environments). Next, design criteria for achieving these features are presented. Then requirements for a CPSE architecture to support these design criteria are listed. Some proposed architectures for CPSEs are reviewed and their capabilities to support these design criteria are discussed. The most popular architecture for remote application sharing, the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) T.120 architecture, does not support highly interactive, dynamic, high resolution graphics. A popular scientific analysis tool that conforms to the design criteria has been integrated into a collaborative environment and tested for effectiveness. The tests showed that the tool was highly effective for both synchronous and asynchronous collaborative analyses.