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(:addthis:)

CoEvolution > Oimp > Lqnet

Low-quality network copping mechanisms

Team
Initiator : Fabien

Goal

The goal is to limit frustration experienced when used a low quality network (high latency, unknown response time, ...) by providing copping mechanisms.

from motivatedphotos.com

Abstraction of the problematic

• You need to perform a task T on a system S
  • T can not be executed outside of S
• you require the result of T for the task T+1
• T should be performed in an amount of time Tx
  • but because of problems in S
  • T will now be perform in time Ty that you can not estimate in any way
  • you can not find an alternative route to re-establish communication with S

How do you cope with this situation ?

In situ example

... waiting for the computer to being a document for the Internet...

when you use a computer over the Internet sometimes you encounter lags or delays because of the quality of the ISP, the website, etc... because it makes de-synchronize you, change your rythm, is unexpected and it is impossible to predict the time it will last it produces a form of frustration/stress

in the hypothetical case that your goal is not to experience frustration/stress and that the waiting is the cause of the stress but you can not act on it

What are the most effective coping mechanisms ?

Proposed solutions

you need an alternative support (ex: a piece of paper) and do tasks with low concentration requirement to easily switch from one task to the other and that you should focus on tasks where you are more efficient without a computer than with one thus maintaining an optimum situation

User input should always be saved locally before being sent through the network in case of potential failure. It does not cost a lot of computational resources (user don't type lot a of text) but for the user it's extremely valuable, especially in a creative environment. For example, editing text in this wiki to add original idea can becomes uncomfortable if I know there is a potential chance that my innovative idea might get lost and I will have to type it again, with the possibility of doing it differently or worse, forgetting it.

Examples

1. working with a shell and locally
2. working on 2 different wikis
3. working on the computer and on a whiteboard
4. ..?

Specific cases

• social communication (synchronized input is required)
  • example : online chat

References

(actually it reminds me of some fundamental classical computer science problems)