Colayer
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| Colayer Web Conversations | |
|---|---|
| Type | Proprietary company |
| Founded | 2000, Incorporated 2004 |
| Headquarters | Zurich, Switzerland |
| Key people | Markus Hegi-Nagavkar, Founder & CEO Sampada Hegi-Nagavkar, Director |
| Industry | Knowledge management Collaboration Web 2.0 |
| Employees | 40 (2006) |
| Subsidiaries | Colayer India |
| Website | http://colayer.com |
Colayer GmbH is a software company, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, founded in 2000. Colayer GmbH also has a subsidiary, Colayer Web Conversations Private Limited located in Pune, India.
Contents |
[edit] History
- 1999: The visions and concepts, which eventually became Colayer, were worked out by founder, Markus Hegi, and a small working prototype was developed on his laptop.[1]
- 2000-2003: Markus Hegi founded Metalayer AG, to work further on his ideas & concepts. The development of these concepts started as a collaboration tool prototype, referred to as "The metalayer Comty Hub". Additionally, the exploration of suitable technologies were taken out for further scalability of the platform.
- 2004-2006: In 2004, Colayer GmbH was established by the same founder who started Metalayer.[2] The management team decided to develop the entire platform to C++ architecture from the ASP.NET model. The focus was to build the core of the Colayer, a robust Web 2.0 platform for the social web.
- 2007: Today, Colayer offers a broad platform to build interactive social Web 2.0 environments. Just like PHP, Coldfusion, ASPX and JSP for the dynamic web, Colayer aims to be the environment for creating any type of Social networking websites and applications.
The two motivating ideas for this approach as been the belief that: Email will be dead soon and The Human Web.
[edit] Product
"The Layer" (or The Collaboration layer), provides a software technology platform for the interactive social web[3]. The platform integrates all the communication needs of an organization, which supports knowledge worker in co-creating, storing & disseminating the knowledge[4]. This platform replaces email communication within the organization, thus eliminating the main disadvantages of emails viz. Inconsistency in data, Spam and Loss of Context. As a result Colayer brings the entire organisation on a Web based environment which instills Co-Creativity & knowledge sharing amongst the extended enterprise.
There are two unique tools within Colayer: The Times page and The IdeaWeaver Shuttle.[5]. The Platform is built up with a variety of Semantic Objects called Sem which facilitates contextual communication in collaboration. The platform also works as a Content Management Solution;[6] Virtual conferencing solution: e-commerce, online meetings, inbuilt alerts via email and SMS, reporting and statistical analysis[7]
There are four Colayer Modules: Comty, Cyte, Karma and Info. Together they form the integral part of the platform — Contextual Collaborative Co-Creativity in Community. The Colayer Platform promotes Co-creation, Transparency & Contextual Collaboration and together it creates a truly living Virtual organisation[8]
[edit] Colayer modules
The Colayer platform consists of 4 modules, each providing a numbers of Semantic types to the platform. Together they form the integral part of the platform. Comty provides Sems for Collaboration, Cyte for Content Management, Info for Information processing and Karma provides social & organizational tools. The Colayer platform promotes Co-creation, Transparency & Contextual Collaboration (with a special tool: The IdeaWeaver Shuttle)
[edit] Comty: Small Work Communities
Comty was the first of the four Colayer modules. The word 'Comty' is a short form for "a small community place". A comty is a virtual place, consisting of:
- A group of people: the comty members
- A specific topic (context): which may be a small project, a (sub) team
- The content created for this topic.
The comty is the virtual place, where this group of people communicate, share knowledge about the topic, co-create new ideas and work together. The comty module has a variety of synchronous, as well as asynchronous tools for collaboration.
[edit] Cyte: Interactive websites
Cyte, the second module, gives tools to build interactive web sites - unlike static & dynamic web sites, a web site built on 'Cyte' allows any visitor to "Click-and-Write" anywhere and communicate in context, both real-time and asynchronously.
Cyte is a way to reach out to the visitors of web sites. Using the IdeaWeaver Shuttle, any visitor is able to ask questions, write suggestions and the site owner can answer & interact synchronously or asynchronously, within the context.
[edit] Info: From Data-bases to knowledge bases
The Info module provides tools to collect data & information, to manage, to aggregate, process and generate information and knowledge. Info provides tools for building customized Webforms, Questionnaires, aggregated results (graphical, XML, relational etc), cockpit information etc.
Info is all about information and hence used in almost all Colayer environments, viz:
- Web Questionnaires
- Intangible Asset Monitoring
- CTMS Solution & Web Diaries
[edit] Karma: Social & organizational tool
The Karma module adds to the Colayer platform various social & organizational tools, like:
- Profiling and Social Networking.
- Matching: Karma helps identifying the right members for the right teams and complementing expertise.
- Virtual organizations as a structure of people, teams, responsibilities and relationships.
[edit] Colayer architecture
Colayer is a Web Application. On the client side, everything runs in the browser with standard HTML, without the need for applets or ActiveX, through the use of the AJAH client technology.
The server consists of a high performance C core. Utilizing technologies such as C++ feature code, .NET and XMLprovides unique flexibility and openness. The Colayer platform includes its own web server, as well as its own XML parser. Colayer, as it is said, is beyond the three conventional layers of software architecture. [9]
[edit] Server-side overview
The Colayer platform consists of the following areas:
- The basic core functions are in static libraries. These are utilities, string handling, a native XML parser, the native Sem objects, a Sem cache, the co-engine, etc.
- All the basic co-functions are in different ‘native’ dll's (Sem.dll, Web.dll, Rent.dll, etc.).
- Coserv.exe and deinos.dll are responsible for ‘holding’ all the modules together and bringing up those that are required.
- Co.dll consists of the managed interface – all managed dll’s are using only the functions of co.dll. It consists of ‘managed wrapper classes’ for the native colayer functionality.
All the customized DLLs consist of co-functions called by the co-engine.
[edit] Client-side overview
Colayer pages run in any common W3C browser and is based on AJAH: Asynchronous JavaScript and HTML is a Colayer technology similar to the better known 'AJAX', but based on a simpler set of technologies: no client side XML, but only HTML is used with JavaScript.
The high dynamics is achieved through W3C-DOM scripting, as well as IFrames for dynamic submission and updates of content. An HTTP stream is used for real time updates (or a continuously refreshing iFrame, if streaming is not available due to firewall or proxy settings; see Comet).
The limitation to a few standard client technologies ensures very few issues with compatibility, firewalls, security technologies etc. A static version is also available for environments without or with limited JavaScript possibilities (devices, or high security environments)
[edit] The native XML base
Colayer is one of the very few native XML applications. There are no relational table structures, all collaboration data is kept in a native XML back end. The data processing and presentation follows the ‘XML philosophy’ of simplicity, openness and extensibility.
This gives the application the unique flexibility and adaptability to the 'chaotic' human process of creativity and knowledge creation.
[edit] Colayer semantic objects
‘Semantics’ is the Science of meaning. Semantics pertains to the study of the meanings of words. The Semantic Colayer Object are the basic building blocks of the Colayer Platform. Thus, if we understand the basic functions and meanings of the Semantic Object, the understanding of the Colayer Platform and its functionalities becomes simpler and easier.
Almost everything in Colayer is a Sem: The items created, the ‘boxes’ appearing for details (for history, member list, manage members, hit list, search etc) as well as the Self (the virtual identities of the members: the red names of online members) the member, the Comty, the page, session etc. are all examples of Semantic Colayer Object (Sem).
[edit] The SEM
A Sem, in complexity, is somewhere between an ‘Object’ in programming Java or C#, and an HTML page on the web. Like programming objects, a Sem encapsulates functionality and is re-usable. Also, there are different Sem types associated with different functionalities. And like an HTML page, a Sem is mostly associated with a design, an HTML and is visible to a user. Most of the Sems are, however, not full pages, but just elements within the pages.
Every Sem has a small piece of XML associated with it, which defines its functionality and content. When the Colayer platform is not running, a Sem consists of only XML. In small environments, the XML is stored in a ‘cobase’ file system, and each Sem in one .XML file. In larger, high performance environments, the Sems are saved in binary form in database files.
Just like Lego blocks, Sems can be put together in any combinations, giving context and meaning to a conversation. The Colayer platform consists of 4 modules, each providing a numbers of Sems, but all Sems can be used and mixed in all modules and in any context. In Colayer, ONLY the context drives communication (not the communication channels).
[edit] References
- ^ Metalayer History. metalayer AG (2000-04-14).
- ^ Colayer Inception. Davoser Zeitung (2007-04-05).
- ^ Virtual Organization. Schweizer Fernsehen.
- ^ Innovation & Knowledge Management in Pharma, Life Science and Healthcare. Barry Hardy (2006-03-14).
- ^ The IdeaWeaver Shuttle. Keenet, Charles Savage (2006-02-10).
- ^ Content Management Solution. Executive Insight (2006-11-05).
- ^ Virtual Online Conferences. Douglas Connect (2004-12-04).
- ^ Virtual Headquarters of Lilly Critical Care, Europe. Lilly CCE.
- ^ Colayer Architecture. USID Conference (2007-05-28).
