Construction of interaction observation systems for collaboration analysis in groupware applications

Interaction observation systems for groupware applications capture and process all the actions performed by users engaged in workgroups. These actions are then stored in log documents that enable the work process carried out by the users to be analyzed and the interaction between users to be studied. This article proposes an approach, based on ontological models, which is devised to help the developer of an observation system for a groupware application to structure and record user actions. In order to achieve this aim, we present a specific ontology that shapes the collaborative work process of the users so as to obtain an XML-based log document that stores all the actions carried out by the users and facilitates the subsequent analysis of the system usage and users’ behavior. This approach has been used to improve communication and collaboration capabilities in the COLLECE groupware application.