5.3.2 Using the Monitor

The BSCW Monitor applet collects and displays information about

• presence and availability of a subset of users of a BSCW server

The subset of users is defined by two criteria

• the users have the BSCW Monitor applet running and connected to that server
• the users are listed in your address book.

Presence means that the user has opened a session on that server and the Monitor applet is connected to that server.

Availability may be set to 'available' or 'away/busy' by the user to indicate that you may or should not try to start a direct interaction.

• activities (Events) in your Workspaces

The activities that are reported are identical in scope (i. e., all your Workspaces on the server) and organization (types of activities) to the Daily Workspace Activity Report (see section 4.2.5). The main advantage of using the BSCW Monitor applet is the near real-time alert to relevant Events.

Note:

The BSCW Monitor functionality is based on the principle of reciprocity: When your Monitor Applet is running, all the users that you see as being 'online' can see that you are connected to the same BSCW server. Just as you can be informed about their activities, they can observe what you are doing.

Figure 5.3-1: Main window of the Monitor applet
Online Co-workers mode

You can have just one Monitor window that displays either 'Online Co-workers' or 'Activity Tracker', or you can allocate a second window to the Activity Tracker and have both kinds of information immediately available on screen. Click the leftmost icon in the Monitor button bar for a drop-down menu that lets you switch among these alternatives.