More Features

Additional BSCW features

Communities

Communities offer self-organised platforms for users with similar interests. In BSCW a community is a (possibly very large) group of users with identical access rights. Each community has an associated community workspace and may have its own admission policy, being open, closed or hidden. Communities may also be used as shared email distribution lists. This feature not only provides intuitive handling of communities at the user interface, but also enables workspace access for very large user groups without sacrificing performance.

RSS feeds

BSCW also allows the sharing of RSS feeds within a shared workspace. RSS feeds provide abstracts of frequently updated web information (e.g. news, blogs) in a standardised format. In BSCW, RSS feed objects are special folders that store the latest abstracts of an RSS feed as RSS articles.

PDF export

A screen list of content objects, which are objects that contain other objects, can be exported in PDF format for printing. This might include folders, discussions, blogs and contact lists.

Document templates

BSCW allows users to quickly and easily re-use a wide range of templates, from existing document templates to predefined workspaces. Template folders are special folders that contain templates that can be copied into other folders. Templates can be created for any BSCW object including various types of documents, surveys, circulation folders, tasks and even entire folders including the content. Templates can be copied into other folders with the Copy from Template command.

BSCW features a selection of standard document templates that allow users to directly create documents in the system. Documents can also be directly edited in the system.

Document encryption

The BSCW system supports key management and integrated document encryption based on public/private key technology. Users can upload a public key and make it available to other BSCW users. They can also define a public group key within a shared workspace. The keys can be generated with the special BSCW desktop application or imported from other systems.

Users can encrypt and sign documents before uploading and then decrypt them after downloading by means of the stand-alone Java-based BSCW desktop application. The application, which is installed via Java Webstart, contains key management and encryption/decryption utilities in addition to document transmission functions.

With the integrated encryption and signature methods, BSCW users can securely exchange sensitive data with confidence. Encrypted information can only be read by selected recipients who use their respective private keys to decrypt the documents.

Screenshot:Eventmap

Document events

The document events function offers a new approach to keeping aware of activity in the workspace. Instead of searching content by attributes or navigating through a folder hierarchy, users can filter workspace content according to various events and then visualise the results in graphical form.

As an example, you can call up a list of all documents in a workspace that you created and which were read by other users. The graphical visualisation in the event map offers other opportunities to explore the content in order to find out which documents appear to be of interest or to see which users are particularly active within a workspace.

Online status and communication tools

BSCW features a Presence toolbar that shows which members of a workspace are online. The optional toolbar appears underneath the navigation bar and is automatically updated. This enables you to see at a glance which users are currently active and which can be contacted. Active users can be selected and contacted through one of the available communication tools.

An integrated configuration feature for different communication tools such as Skype, SIP or various instant messengers allows users to indicate their communications preference and how they can best be reached.

Further Important Features