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Prairie is a simulation prototype or vision, demonstrating how individuals may work together in a virtual work enviroment designed for a whole enterprise. Prairie addresses various organizational and social issues exacerbated by distance and time. By using the concept of communities and by extending physical interaction cues to others across distance and time, we demonstrate possible solutions to these issues. In Prairie, people and information are organized into mission-based (organizational units), goal-based (project teams) and interest-based (special interest groups) hierarchies for ease of navigation. A worker may alternately navigate to communities by using personal links from their private virtual desktops. Each community has two areas. One area contains the information germane to a community, that is pushed or pulled depending on the nature of the information. Each community also has an area with a shared view where community members can meet or congregate. Presence in these community areas range from seeing thumbnail photos to holding a video-conference. The shared view facilitates ad hoc, informal interactions which are important for maintaining and building social networks and organizational culture. We believe the framework for Prairie is flexible, integrated, and scaleable so it can be adapted to model other organizations, communities, and processes. |
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