Modeling and exploiting collaborative traces in web-based collaborative working environment

•We analyzed and defined the different types of traces in collaborative working environment to study their origins and effects.•We built a model of collaborative trace to learn the interactions between actor and system or among the actors themselves.•A complex filter was proposed to exploit the collaborative traces.•We constructed a general framework for SWOT Analysis based on collaborative traces.•Our models were implemented in the E-MEMORAe2.0 collaborative working environment.

In a Web-based Collaborative Working Environment (CWE), traces are always produced by past activities or interactions. Although every trace derives from the stored information, the modeled trace not only represents knowledge but also experience from the interactive actions among the actors or between an actor and the system. Normally, with the increasing complexity of group structure and frequent collaboration needs, the existing interactions become more difficult to grasp and analyze. This article focuses on defining, modeling and exploiting the various traces in the context of CWE, in particular Collaborative Traces (CTs) left in the shared/collaborative workspace. A model of collaborative trace that can efficiently enrich group experience and facilitate group collaboration is proposed and explained in details. Furthermore, we introduce and define a type of complex filter as a possible approach to exploit the traces. Four basic scenarios of collaborative trace exploitation are presented to describe its effects and advantages in CWE. A general model and framework of CT-based SWOT Analysis is discussed with examples. For practical applications, the validation of our model is examined in the context of the collaborative platform E-MEMORAe2.0. In addition, a remark concerning recommendations based on collaborative traces is given in the conclusion.