As the developers and publishers of Aspects, we thought it would be useful to put together answers to some of the questions people have been asking about Aspects and other groupware products.
What is Aspects?
Aspects is software for collaborative writing, peer editing and discussion on a network*. It has two components. First, the Collaborative Word Processor lets a group of students share a document across the screens in a Mac lab. Each group can view and edit the text together, and see each other's changes as they happen. Second, the Chat Box, lets students conduct an electronic discussion by posting comments.*Any AppleTalk compatible network (LocalTalk, Ethernet, AppleShare, or "printer sharing").
For which platforms is Aspects available?
Aspects is currently available for Macintosh. We do plan to have a Windows version, but probably not until next year.We would also be interested to hear how much interest there is in a Windows version of Aspects. Specifically, how many schools have their PCs linked on a network and are running Windows?
How do groupware products compare?
The category of groupware that's been discussed recently has been real-time conferencing. Within the real-time conferencing category, there are several sub-categories that these products fit into, which are described below.
- SHARED DOCUMENTS (Aspects)
Aspects allows users on a network to work together on shared documents. Aspects works by initially sending a shared document to everyone in a conference. Aspects works by synchronizing the documents, letter by letter, in real-time. The result is that when one person makes a change, the people who have that document see it instantly. Aspects allows people to take turns editing (medium or full mediation), or to actually type simultaneously, as long as they're in separate paragraphs (free for all). Aspects also has a Chat Box component (see below), which can be used to comment on the shared document or it can be used independently for online discussion or brainstorming.
- ONLINE DISCUSSIONS/CHATTING (Aspects, Daedalus)
This is the area in which Aspects and Daedalus are best compared. The Chat Box in Aspects is similar to the Interchange module of Daedalus. Both allow users in a conference to compose a message and then send it to the others. Again, this is for online discussions, rather than sharing screens or documents. [Please note that Daedalus has other components that seem to be outside the scope of this current discussion.]
- SCREEN SHARING (Timbuktu, ScreenLink)
These products work by continually broadcasting one person's screen to other users. They are used primarily by technical support people who need to diagnose and fix problems on remote computers. Some schools do use screen sharing in classrooms, but most teachers we have spoken with find screen sharing too slow for classroom purposes.
- WHITEBOARDING (Group Logic Whiteboard, Proshare)
Whiteboard products let a group of people capture a static image of a document and then view it together on multiple screens. Instead of making changes to the document as in Aspects, they can use "mark up" capabilities to annotate it. Our product, Group Logic Whiteboard, is now available for Mac and Windows. Like other whiteboard products, it was designed primarily as an adjunct to desktop videoconferencing systems and has not yet been adapted for classroom use. (In education, it's more suitable for point-to-point distance learning.) If there is interest, we may release a version of Whiteboard for Mac and Windows later this year adapted for classroom use.How many people can use Aspects?
Any number of people can use Aspects. The limit that causes confusion is that Aspects lets people work together in one or more conferences, each of which can have up to 16 people at a time. For collaborative writing and discussions, most teachers have told us they prefer to set up their classes in several small conferences; for example a class of 30 might have six conferences of five students each. We do realize, of course, that are times when teachers would like to have the entire class in one conference, often as a way to show a document to everyone. We do plan to increase the limit for this purpose.
If you'd like further information about Aspects or Whiteboard, please contact us at grouplogic@aol.com or 800-476-8781.
Dimitri
-- Dimitri Korahais
-- Director of Education Marketing - Aspects -- Group Logic, Inc.
-- 1408 N. Fillmore Street, Suite 10
-- Arlington, Virginia 22201 USA
-- Phone: (703) 528-1555 or (800) 476-8781 -- Fax: (703) 528-3296
-- Email: grouplogic@aol.com