Semantic Formalism for Modelling the Group Interaction

Abstract

The process of groupware development can be founded on the conceptual modeling of group interaction, since the interaction determines how the group members communicate, collaborate, and coordinate in order to perform some tasks-in accordance with the roles; users can play-to achieve a common goal. Therefore, in this paper a formalism to model the group interaction is proposed, this approach is inspired by formalisms that have been developed within this context: an ontology of the session management policy, which establishes the group organizational structure, in terms of the roles that users (group members) will play; an Model-View-Controller architectural pattern, which establishes a set of recommendations to facilitate the process of groupware development; and a Methodology that supports the process of ontologies development, by using a set of tasks, allowing us to simplify this process. The formalism to analyze and design the interaction in a shared workspace, is composed by the following modeling: 1) Role Modeling; 2) Interaction Modeling; and 3) User Interface Modeling. Finally, a proof of concept based on a case study is presented.