An Open Source Collaboration Framework with Inter-Desktop Movable Windows and Remote Multicursor Desktops

摘要

Many current tools for conferencing and synchronous collaborative work suffer from being limited to certain types of documents or to specific, often proprietary collaboration software. In this paper we introduce a system for assisting synchronous collaborative work with arbitrary software by enabling to move any window on a typical computer desktop to other desktops in the system, may it be another computer in the company or a virtual desktop being run on a shared desktop-server. We equip these desktop servers with multiuser multicursor capabilities, such that groups of users can join to work concurrently on a shared desktop, both locally and from a distance. As any kind of window can be moved from desktop to desktop, the choice of software that can be used for collaborative tasks is unlimited. Our system is built from reliable open source components only and is freely available for everyone. In this paper we present the current version of our system that works for arbitrary Unix-based computers and demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. Thus we show how collaboration suites, terminal systems, desktop sharing and multicursor desktops can be generalized into a consistent system, where the window on the screen is the users essential movable item that is used for remote work and collaboration.