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Web-Based Support by Thin-Client Co-browsing

  • Chapter
Emergent Web Intelligence: Advanced Semantic Technologies

Part of the book series: Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing ((AI&KP))

Abstract

As web applications are becoming ever larger, more complex and thus more demanding for their users, there is a growing need for customer support. Very often, it is provided by support centers via phone. However, the media break between browser and phone hampers the common understanding of user and consultant. As a result, support becomes ineffective and expensive, and users get frustrated. Screen sharing solutions are one possible solution for this problem, but they have major disadvantages like high bandwidth requirements, slow performance and, most importantly, the need for a client-side installation. These drawbacks are addressed by VCS, a concept and system for “instant co-browsing”, that runs directly within the user’s browser. It equally allows all participants of a support session to see and navigate the same web page on their screens, being aware of what the other person is currently doing on the page. People can directly interact with each other, jointly complete tasks and solve. The event-based nature of the synchronization approach to be presented further facilitates adaptation, so that users with heterogeneous end devices may collaborate. In this chapter, we present VCS and also discuss the special challenges that this approach entails.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/.

  2. 2.

    http://www.webex.com.

  3. 3.

    http://www.matthewssoftware.com/BrowserFor2.

  4. 4.

    http://www.bestsella.com/produkte/bestscout.

  5. 5.

    http://proton.semanticweb.org/.

  6. 6.

    http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-time/.

  7. 7.

    http://www.novomind.de/press/press_information_2006/rel_123_en.html.

  8. 8.

    http://www.comarch.com.

  9. 9.

    http://htmlparser.sourceforge.net/.

  10. 10.

    http://jena.sourceforge.net.

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Acknowledgements

The VCS project was funded with means of the European Regional Development Fund 2000–2006 and with means of the Free State of Saxony. The authors especially want to thank Dr. Zoltán Fiala and the VCS team at Comarch, Dresden.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Multimedia Technology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Matthias Niederhausen, Stefan Pietschmann & Klaus Meißner

  2. T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH, Dresden, Germany

    Tobias Ruch

Authors
  1. Matthias Niederhausen
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  2. Stefan Pietschmann
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  3. Tobias Ruch
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  4. Klaus Meißner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthias Niederhausen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. INSA de Lyon, avenue Jean Capelle 7, Villeurbanne CX, 69621, France

    Youakim Badr

  2. Fac. Sciences Mirande, UMR CNRS 5158, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon CX, France

    Richard Chbeir

  3. Technology, Center for Quantifiable Quality of, Norwegian University of Science &, O.S. Bragstads plass 2E, Trondheim, 7491, Norway

    Ajith Abraham

  4. College of Business & Administration, Dept. Quantitative Methods &, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait

    Aboul-Ella Hassanien

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Niederhausen, M., Pietschmann, S., Ruch, T., Meißner, K. (2010). Web-Based Support by Thin-Client Co-browsing. In: Badr, Y., Chbeir, R., Abraham, A., Hassanien, AE. (eds) Emergent Web Intelligence: Advanced Semantic Technologies. Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-077-9_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-077-9_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84996-076-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84996-077-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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