Abstract not found

The title of this paper was chosen to highlight the fact that the label CSCW, although widely adopted as the acronym for the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work, has been applied to computer applications of very different ilk. It is not at all clear what are the unique identifying elements of this research area. This paper provides a framework for approaching the issue of cooperative work and its possible computer support. The core issues are identified and prospects for the field are outlined.

While groupware is readily available, people on wide area networks—such as the Internet—have considerable trouble contacting each other and setting up groupware connections. To pinpoint why this occurs, this paper identifies human factors critical to getting a group communicating through groupware. It addresses how people find suitable partners, and how people choose appropriate communication mediums. These factors are discussed in detail, and form a design foundation for systems that promote social presence and that integrate communication. Existing systems are critically reviewed and shown to be inadequate for general use over a wide area net, for they either do not meet some basic design criteria, or they require a very high technological entry level that is beyond the reach of most computer users. As an alternative, the paper presents the design considerations behind TELEFREEK, a flexible, extensible, and customizable platform for collaboration. Drawing on resources freely available to the Internet community, TELEFREEK assists people making contact with others, and integrates access to common communication facilities. KEYWORDS contact facilitation, casual interaction, coordination, computer supported cooperative work, groupware.

“Collaborative work is the core of our society, wrought with difficulties and benefits. It is clear that technology can change group work, and there is a good possibility that it can result in major enhancements to productivity.

. The decision of the German Parliament to relocate the seat of Parliament and Government from Bonn to Berlin is a major challenge and opportunity for information and communication technology. Only by employing the very latest technology will it be possible to implement Parliament's decision for a workable and efficient government distributed between Berlin and Bonn. The paper outlines the fundamental problems arising for cooperation among governmental bodies as a result of spatial separation. It discusses trends and prospects for support through new information and communication technologies and also introduces the POLIKOM research program by which the German government wishes to contribute to resolving the problems. 2 1. Introduction The decision of the German Parliament to relocate the seat of Parliament and Government from Bonn to Berlin represents a major challenge and opportunity for information and communication technology. The necessity for cooperation between the two cities ...

CSCW systems have generally failed to meet the requirements of users in actual cooperative work settings, primarily due to constraints imposed by current platform architectures that do not adequately support the fluent transitions between formal and informal interaction or the inextricable interweaving of individual and cooperative work that characterizes everyday work practice. Based on a sociological conceptualization of cooperative work, the paper outlines the requirements for a CSCW platform that is characterized by a clear division of labour between CSCW applications that incorporate domain-specific mechanisms of interaction and a CSCW platform providing a set of generic techniques of communication accessible to CSCW and singleuser applications alike.

Globalization, virtual corporations, telecommuting, empowerment of teams, reduced cycle time and the need to frequently make decisions quickly makes it necessary for groups to work together while the participants may be in different Z. locations. Distributed Group Support System DGSS is a technology that can help groups to overcome some of the difficulties associated with being in different places and sometimes in different time zones. The purpose of this paper is to propose a research framework that addresses the major issues involved in the implementation of DGSSs. These issues were identified in a literature review and in a small scale survey of practitioners. The proposed framework extends the traditional Z. decision room GSS framework by adding relevant topics in all major parts. In addition, a new set of characteristics input variables related to communication issues while being in different places, was added. q 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Distributed group support systems; Electronic meeting systems; Group support systems; Group decision support systems; Distributed work; Internet; Intranet 1.

The paper proposes a Situated Activity Theory view of collaborative knowledge work. Activity Theory is argued to be particularly relevant in the context knowledge work since the body of knowledge is a historically accumulated social construction. Situated Activity Theory makes a distinction between activity, tasks and encounters, the first two following the traditional distinction between activity and action in Activity Theory. Encounters are incorporated to model explicitly the temporal organisation of work. Referring to the high variety of knowledge work, Situated Activity Theory suggests an instansiation process in which an activity is instansiated into an action working on a single object of work. The culturally developed activity system is seen to serve as a significant resource and constraint in the process. Influenced by the ideas of situated action the instansiation process is viewed as continuous process that takes place in a close concert with the action as it unfolds.

Rather than embodying the behaviour of toolkit components directly in their implementation, metalevel techniques provide programmers with ways to override and revise them. The style of very flexible design is derived from specialisable generic models of application behaviour. This paper presents a generic model of distribution and synchrony in cooperative systems. Organised around the explicit management of divergence between parallel streams of activity, it links usage and implementation issues, as well as supporting an important class of applications which are not well supported by more traditional CSCW models. Examples are given showing this model as a basis for flexible design.

Much of the evaluative research on groupware in organisations so far has been preoccupied with the role of groupware as a new interaction media to replace or extend face-to-face communication in groups. It has focused on gains and losses from a group interaction point of view, typically disregarding the impact of other functions such as group access, and contribution to information concerning the organisation. This paper tries to bridge this gap with an action research on the effects of the introduction of an asynchronous groupware system to support business process improvement groups in a service company based in Brazil. The research suggests that improvements on business redesign efficiency and effectiveness can be attained not only from asynchronous groupware support to group communication, but also from public sharing of historical information about previous business process improvement efforts, and by providing a repository of information about business processes that could be candidates for improvement. The paper finishes with the proposal of an explanatory model, describing the relationship between the introduction of technology, its integration with a business process improvement meta-process, and its effects on the efficiency and effectiveness of that meta-process.