The neem dream

Abstract

Imagine an environment in which computerized agents assist in human to human interaction via voice, video, and other multi-media/multi-modal mechanisms. The Project Neem work introduces virtual participants Kwaku, Kwabena, and Kwesi - virtual participants who endeavor to make distributed meetings more effective, more efficient, and more pleasant.This document provides an overview of project Neem; its goals and directions, and its motivation. Neem is a research project at the University of Colorado concerned with understanding, enhancing and augmenting highly interactive distributed collaborations through advanced technology. A major novel aspect of this research is the use of intelligent artificial agents as full-fledged meeting participants. Goals of this interdisciplinary project include the enhancement of distributed group interaction understanding, and the creation and testing of prototype distributed meeting environments. With the encouragement and partnership of iAAEC (the Institute for African American Electronic Community), we have built and are testing a prototype distributed meeting system.Research methods include theoretical modeling, meetings analyses, prototype implementation and testing in real world environments, and meeting metrics development and application. Tools for understanding the social and organizational context of these meetings include the SYMLOG methodology applied by social agents, and the IBIS methodology applied by organizational agents. A new model enabling these agent analyses is the GraspIce model, explained in this document. The work described herein is part of a larger ongoing effort within the Collaboration Technology Research Group at the University of Colorado to understand human collaboration, and to assist and enhance that collaboration via technology.