1. Lightweight Ad Hoc Collaboration
Lessons from field studies of collaborative systems
Sync among personal devices differs from sync with collaborators
People retain file versions in an idiosyncratic manner
Collaborators aren’t sure who has the most recent version of a file
Cimetric
An application to support lightweight ad hoc collaboration
Replicated personal workspace
Shared, locally-replicated, versioned repository
Check-in / check-out model
No centralized server required
Awareness of system and user state

2. Cimetric architecture
repository
Ted’s stuff
Separate replication of working files and repositories
Single version of working files; multi-versioned repositories
Check-in/out bridges between personal stuff and stuff shared with colleagues
User chooses when to adopt new repository versions
Opportunistic synchronization using Cimbiosys replication platform
Optional cloud repository replica
Peers identify and join existing collaborations by broadcast, via the cloud, or manually
working files
Home
working files
Laptop
repository
repository
working files
working files
Work
Work
repository
repository
working files
Laptop
repository
check out/check in
synchronize repository
Doug’s stuff
synchronize working files

3. Cimetric User Interface
Replica properties dialog:
Details of peer replicas
Controls sync period
Join collaboration dialog:
Finds collaborators by broadcast
Enumerates cloud replica
Allows user to add peers manually
Recent sync notification
Check in/out:
Optimistic concurrency control
Repository annotations:
Advisory locks
Textual notes
Workset notifications:
File out of date
File modified
Workset pane
Repository pane
Repository conflict:
Dominant versions with different provenance (e.g., branches)
History dialog:
Repository shows only dominant versions
History shows older versions
Workset file properties dialog:
Details of replication metadata