A Loosely Coupled Integration Environment for Collaborative Applications

In the computer-supported cooperative work domain, researchers have always wondered about which principles and models to adopt for the development of collaborative applications capable to really meet users´ needs. However, these requirements are often unpredictable and depend on several task- or environment-related factors. Integrated collaborative environments are rarely open, extensible, and reconfigurable enough so as to meet these requirements. This paper presents an environment, called loosely coupled environment for integrating collaborative applications (LEICA), allowing the integration of existing collaborative applications. LEICA adopts a loosely coupled integration approach which is based on Web Services technology, an Event Notification System, and the definition of Collaboration Policies to control the interactions between integrated applications. LEICA allows different functionalities of existing applications to be dynamically combined and controlled, enhancing its flexibility. Through a case study, we show how LEICA was successfully used to integrate three collaborative applications: a Co-browsing tool, an instant messaging tool, and a Voice over Internet Protocol Conference Controller.