Improving the usability of collaboration methods and technologies in engineering

This paper illuminates certain needs and solutions in collaborative engineering like the ability to initiate collaboration sessions without preparation steps, the acceptance of collaboration solutions due to heterogeneous IT landscapes and the protection of intellectual property rights. These problems are observed together with current solutions in commercial products and research projects. An overview of those solutions is presented, including their workings, problems and current state of development adding some in depth information about current research work conducted by the authors to address these problems.