The Sydney Visualization Lab at the University of Sydney, Australia, and the San Diego Supercomputer Center, have developed a handful of additional collaborative AVS modules. Designed for use with the SDSC Share modules, these provide supplementary collaborative functionality. Here we briefly describe each of these additional modules.
The Network Change and Execute CLI Modules
These modules, developed at the Sydney Visualization Lab, are
designed to provide distance learning functionality when combined
with the Share modules. The figure below shows one configuration
in which these modules might be used.
Here the AVS network containing the Network Change module acts as a lecturer, while the remaining AVS networks containing the Execute CLI module, act as listeners. Each change made to the AVS network on the lecturer's host is captured by the Network Change module and rebroadcast to all "listeners" via the Share String module. The Execute CLI module in the AVS network on each listener's host receives and executes the change. In this way, a lecturer can interactively construct an AVS network for any number of listeners. Modules can be added, removed, module connections made or released, and parameter values set.
The Participants Module
Often it is useful to visually track the current participants in
a given collaborative session. To this end, the Participants module
provides a small window in which the username and hostname of each
collaborator is listed. Collaborators are listed in alphabetical
order as shown, and the list is automatically updated as participants
come and go.
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This module's server host and server port buttons are operated in the same manner as those of the Share modules. Note that in the current version, a participant must be running an instance of the Participants module to show up in the list. This limitation may eventually disappear, as future versions of the Share modules will incorporate the Participants module functionality.
