Below is the reviews of the general agents that are envisioned for CASCADE--Document Agents, Navigation Agents, Writing Assistants, Management Agents, and Personal Preference Agents.
The current document space in CASCADE reflects the underlying unix file system. This will be replaced with an SGML repository residing in the DBMS that views the document as a logical structure consistent with both SGML and the user's mental model of the document and comments. Within the structure the user should be able to seamlessly view the entire document even though each section may be under the control of a different individual or group.
Research indicates the importance of the representation of text. Comments and revisions need to be associated with the appropriate portion of text. There is a need to facilitate commenting and linking these comments to specific parts of text. Also related is the display of various text items--full text, `place-holders', and annotations. Their distinct functions imply a need to represent or display these items differently. The right to directly modify or alter the text is another option needed in a collaborative system. This implies that the ability to identify commentors or revisers is required. This concept also relates to generations of the same documents and management of those previous versions. Access to the current, as well as prior, versions of each document section will be supported. Document space construction agents will be responsible for both the logical structuring of the entity as well as the physical creation of the structure. In addition, the Document Space Agent will be responsible for distribution of the components in order to achieve the goal of document immediacy and ubiquity.
While CASCADE will support and encourage electronic documents that have no linear form, there is a clear need for the creation of paper and electronic copies of documents that have a ``normal form''. This will be the responsibility of the Linear Document Construction Agent. This will require that the agent understand how and when links are to be traversed, and how the resulting composite document should be processed for presentation.
CASCADE provides a number of facilities for inserting, reviewing, and reporting on comments which will be presented in the next section.
A graphical directory tree makes it easy to find the desired document and its sub-components. Usability studies will be required to determine the best graphical representation. The navigation function will map additional data to the visual structure in accord with the general rules set out by Spring [6]. Icon color, size, shape, and intensity can be used to display various information about the node. Finally, a lens feature can be implemented to allow for component preview. A document viewer is an integral part of the navigation mechanisms. Whenever a document node is accessed, the document contents become visible along with its hypertext links. Given the proper permissions, a document may be directly edited at this point but it is anticipated that only minor changes will be performed this way. The viewer will mainly be used to read and navigate the hypertext document and to embed comment or reference links directly into the text.
Time management is another concern in collaboration. Deadlines could be brought to the writers attention in a variety of ways--e.g. messages when a deadline is approaching, Changing color of the document's border or icon, etc. To develop a time management module, we need to know the types of reminders are most effective and least offensive to users, which visual cues best indicate priority, etc.