Lightweight Collaborative Web Browsing

Abstract

Collaborative navigation systems provide a useful way for virtual groups to share information through the web. However, the common set of features of these tools is not enough to offer a more face-to-face browsing experience. To fill in the gap, this paper presents a collaborative web browsing proposal, which integrates flexible session management, the maintenance of shared production spaces, and efficient communication facilities. The proposal relies on a collaboration ontology that provides a well-defined conceptualization and common vocabulary. To demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, the OCEAN prototype was developed and tested.