Sharing information on the web using bitlets

Information sharing is the cornerstone of eCollaboration both in the business world as well as between individuals. The need to easily capture, share and aggregate information are ever increasing. In the context of flexible business eCollaboration, also called Dynamic eCollaboration, people require the ability to capture, share and aggregate three types of web-based information. These include public content, content only accessible via online services requiring authentication and parts of web applications so different people can collaborate over them. During the course of our research in information sharing approaches we identified the inability of current approaches and tools to cater for sharing of these three types of information. Most current approaches are limited because of the general architecture pattern they follow of allowing multiple paths to the same information for each user. In this paper we are proposing a new approach that can effectively address existing limitations, and we define the concept of Bitlets. Bitlets are standalone, shamble bundles of information that users can create and make available for others to use. This new concept of Bitlets meets the characteristics for information sharing that can support Dynamic eCollaboration, namely offering control, flexibility and choice to their users. We have successfully implemented the Bitlet Server and present its design, discuss technical challenges and lessons learnt from the experience. We believe that this new Bitlet concept will give rise to new ways of sharing information on the web and allow Dynamic eCollaboration to gain popularity.