Current ofice systems independently manage workflows and personal schedules. However, they cannot be managed independently, because of resource constraints. The "WorkWeb System" is an expanded workflow system that is able to manage and control office resources. The "BPT agent" in the system autonomously manages each workflow process instance, trying to acquire the necessary resources to complete it in time. The WorkWeb System also provides visual interfaces to manage and control office goals and several workflow m-planning algorithms to handle exceptional cases. This paper illustrates how the resource management and work%ow dynamic scheduling are performed, and discusses issues involved with this system.
We have designed and implemented a support system for collaborative environmental education, DigitalEE, which realizes distributed virtual environment accessible from real and virtual worlds. This system introduces the following diverse features into environmental education: global arguments supported by the Internet, giving learners pseudo experiences by virtual reality, supplementing real natural experiences by augmented reality, and giving learners experts' valuable knowledge by distance education. Shared virtual space in the distributed virtual environment is "3D virtual nature", which is a VRML world representing the real nature. Learners learning through direct experiences can enter the 3D virtual nature from the real world with mobile computers, whereas experts and other participants can enter the 3D virtual nature from distant locations with their personal computers. People throughout the world can communicate with each other while sharing the same place virtually between real and virtual worlds. Learners' observation, experts' knowledge, and other participants' information are continuously accumulated in the shared 3D virtual nature as VRML objects and web pages, and the world is being updated dynamically in the learning process. With these ideas, DigitalEE realizes a new style of environmental education such as collaborative outdoor learning supported by knowledgeable experts throughout the world and interactive virtual tours to inaccessible natural environment.
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