| A Collaborative Schema Integration System | | BIBAK | 1-18 | |
| P. Beynon-Davies; L. Bonde; D. McPhee; C. B. Jones | |||
| Conceptual modelling as applied to database development can be described as
a two stage process: schema modelling followed by schema integration. Schema
modelling is the process of transforming individual user requirements into a
conceptual schema: an implementation-independent map of data requirements.
Schema integration is the process of combining individual conceptual schemas
into a single, unified schema. Single-user tools for schema modelling have
enjoyed much success partly because the process of schema modelling has become
relatively well formalised. Although a number of formal approaches to
conducting schema integration have been proposed, it appears that schema
integration tools have not enjoyed the same level of success. This we
attribute not so much to the problem of formalisation but to the inherent
collaborative nature of schema integration work. This paper first discusses
the importance of collaboration to schema integration work. It then describes
SISIBIS, a demonstrator system employing the IBIS (Issue Based Information
System) scheme to support collaborative database design. Keywords: Database design, Schema integration, CSCW, Hypermedia | |||
| Collaborative Writing is Hard to Support: A Field Study of Collaborative Writing | | BIBAK | 19-51 | |
| S. G. Tammaro; J. N. Mosier; N. C. Goodwin; G. Spitz | |||
| This paper documents the results of a field test of Instant Update, a
collaborative writing tool by a geographically dispersed department at the
MITRE Corporation. Thirty-six participants were given Instant Update software
and free training and support in exchange for their cooperation with data
collection. These participants spent a great deal of time writing and
communicating with each other about their written work. They began the pilot
test with enthusiasm, using Instant Update for many types of documents and
anticipating many benefits. After three months of experience they rated the
actual benefits they received from the software lower than they had expected.
Their usage became much more refined. They continued to use it for some types
of documents, but stopped for others. The collaborative writing software was
used successfully to create joint documents that have a consistent format and
are produced on a regular basis (such as weekly activity reports) and for
documents that provide access to shared information (such as a vacation
calendar). It was used less successfully for the production of documents that
require a complex work flow and have a changing group of contributors. We
concluded that although collaborative writing is difficult to support and the
currently available collaborative writing tools need to be improved before they
can meet the needs of most co-writers, they are adequate for some types of
tasks. Documents that are well defined and are created by experienced users
who can cooperate well can benefit from the currently available tools. Keywords: Computer-supported writing, Collaborative editing, Collaborative writing,
Cooperative work, Group communication | |||
| When Are Group Scheduling Tools Useful? | | BIBAK | 53-70 | |
| Jane N. Mosier; Susan G. Tammaro | |||
| A geographically dispersed department at the MITRE Corporation participated
in a field test of groupware tools. This paper documents the results of their
use of a group scheduling tool, Meeting Maker Version 1.5. Research in the
late 1980s showed that early group scheduling tools were not useful, in part
because they only benefited some users and hence critical mass could not be
attained. This study was undertaken to determine whether and how far the tools
have evolved. Participants said that Meeting Maker made it easy to schedule
meetings and maintain their calendars, and 90% wished to continue using it
after the study was complete. Problems were noted when not everyone used or
had access to the tool, and three generic solutions are discussed: capabilities
that allow users to communicate with non-users, capabilities that allow users
to stay connected, and lightweight methods of participation. Keywords: Critical mass, Diffusion of innovation, Group calendaring, Group scheduling | |||
| Groupware Environments as Action Constitutive Resources: A Social Action Framework for Analyzing Groupware Technologies | | BIBAK | 71-93 | |
| Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama; Kalle J. Lyytinen | |||
| Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is a relatively new and dynamic
field dealing with the development and use of groupware technologies in
organizations. Several frameworks and models have been proposed for studying
CSCW, each conveying a different perspective and theoretical basis. Although
these frameworks have contributed much to our understanding of the field, they
can be criticized for a lack of holistic understanding of the complex social
activity that is constitutive of groupwork. This often leads to the failure of
otherwise well designed CSCW applications. In this paper we take up this
challenge and propose a social action framework for analyzing groupware
technologies. The framework is based on Habermas's theory of social action and
four action categories, and the idea that groupware applications serve as sets
of rules and resources which mediate group interactions. We demonstrate the
value of the framework by analyzing a wide range of existing groupware
technologies for their appropriateness to specific groupwork situations in
terms of their espoused or implicit assumptions of groupwork, and the action
constitutive resources they provide. Our analysis points out that a host of
current groupware applications can be fairly easily classified and examined by
the way they are configured to support different types of social action. It
also suggests that, when implementing groupware applications, developers should
critically evaluate: (a) the need for supporting a rich variety of action
types, (b) the possible role of computer support in the specific groupwork
situations, and (c) the underlying assumptions of groupwork embedded in the
groupware platform. Finally, we will discuss how the framework can inform
future research and development in the field. Keywords: Computer supported cooperative work, Groupware, Group support systems,
Decision support systems, Communication systems, Collaboration technology,
Coordination systems, Social action theory | |||
| "Transforming Organisations Through Groupware: Lotus Notes in Action," edited by Peter Lloyd and Roger Whitehead | | BIB | 95-98 | |
| R. H. R. Harper | |||
| "Groupware and Authoring," edited by Roy Rada | | BIB | 99-101 | |
| Mike Sharples | |||
| "Cooperating Heterogeneous Systems," by David G. Schwartz | | BIB | 102-104 | |
| Carla Simone | |||
| Preface | | BIB | v-vi | |
| Richard Bentley; Uwe Busbach; David Kerr; Klaas Sikkel | |||
| The World Wide Web as Enabling Technology for CSCW: The Case of BSCW | | BIBAK | 111-134 | |
| Richard Bentley; Thilo Horstmann; Jonathan Trevor | |||
| Despite the growth of interest in the field of CSCW, and the increasingly
large number of systems which have been developed, it is still the case that
few systems have been adopted for widespread use. This is particularly true
for widely-dispersed, cross-organisational working groups where problems of
heterogeneity in computing hardware and software environments inhibit the
deployment of CSCW technologies. With a lightweight and extensible
client-server architecture, client implementations for all popular computing
platforms, and an existing user base numbered in millions, the World Wide Web
offers great potential in solving some of these problems to provide an
'enabling technology' for CSCW applications. We illustrate this potential
using our work with the BSCW shared workspace system -- an extension to the Web
architecture which provides basic facilities for collaborative information
sharing from unmodified Web browsers. We conclude that despite limitations in
the range of applications which can be directly supported, building on the
strengths of the Web can give significant benefits in easing the development
and deployment of CSCW applications. Keywords: World Wide Web, BSCW, Enabling technologies, Information sharing | |||
| Challenges for Cooperative Work on the Web: An Analytical Approach | | BIBAK | 135-156 | |
| Alan Dix | |||
| This paper investigates some of the issues which will determine the
viability of the World Wide Web as an infrastructure for cooperative work. In
fact, taking a weak definition of collaboration, the Web is already a very
successful collaborative environment. In addition, it is already being used as
the basis for experimental and commercial groupware. The paper takes this as a
starting point and uses analytic methods developed in the field of Computer
Supported Cooperative Work to investigate the reasons for the Web's present
success, its strengths and weaknesses as a platform for CSCW, and prospects for
future development. Keywords: World Wide Web, Client-server, Cost-benefit, CSCW framework, User-interface
architectures | |||
| Structured Cooperative Authoring for the World Wide Web | | BIBAK | 157-174 | |
| Manuel Romero Salcedo; Dominique Decouchant | |||
| Alliance is a structured cooperative authoring application that allows
people spread out across different locations to work together on document
production and maintenance. It uses the World Wide Web as an infrastructure to
accomplish distributed document management, asynchronous group awareness, and
communication and cooperation among distributed authors. A particular feature
of Alliance is that it can handle temporary disconnections from the network
without disrupting the cooperative editing. In this article we report our
experience in designing and implementing Alliance, focusing on the mechanisms
that needed to be developed in order to support cooperative authoring using the
Web. Keywords: Asynchronous cooperative authoring, Group awareness, CSCW, World Wide Web,
Disconnected editing | |||
| Distributed Coordination and Workflow on the World Wide Web | | BIBAK | 175-200 | |
| Antonietta Grasso; Jean-Luc Meunier; Daniele Pagani; Remo Pareschi | |||
| This paper describes WebFlow, an environment that supports distributed
coordination services on the World Wide Web. WebFlow leverages the HTTP Web
transport protocol and consists of a number of tools for the development of
applications that require the coordination of multiple, distributed servers.
Typical applications of WebFlow include distributed document workspaces,
inter/intra-enterprise workflow, and electronic commerce. In this paper we
describe the general WebFlow architecture for distributed coordination, and
then focus on the environment for distributed workflow. Keywords: Distributed workflow, Coordination technology, Collaborative systems, World
Wide Web | |||
| Enterprise-Level Groupware Choices: Evaluating Lotus Notes and Intranet-Based Solutions | | BIBAK | 201-225 | |
| Mark Ginsburg; Katherine Duliba | |||
| This paper considers collaborative software at the enterprise level,
specifically Lotus Notes and alternatives which use Intranet-based (World Wide
Web) technologies. We examine the strategic reasons, both short-term and
long-term, motivating firms' choices in the decision phase and organizational
issues in the implementation phase in three exploratory case studies. We
review prior coordination technology literature to show that our focus on the
decision faced by senior management of which groupware system to implement is a
useful and novel perspective to pursue. We argue that this choice, and its
consequences, is of crucial importance to the firm. To understand more fully
the nature of the decision, we consider a thematic pair of related issues:
Internet standards and interoperability. Why are so-called 'Open Systems' a
major factor to some firms and not important to others? Why is the proprietary
nature of Lotus Notes a stumbling block to some firms and a strategic advantage
to others? We explore enterprise-level groupware expectations and requirements
in our case studies to address these interesting questions. The final section
focuses on predicting change to understand when an organization might reverse
its initial enterprise-wide collaborative strategy. Keywords: Enterprise-level groupware, Lotus Notes, Intranet, World Wide Web,
Standards, Interoperability | |||
| Virtual Society: Collaboration in 3D Spaces on the Internet | | BIBAK | 227-250 | |
| Rodger Lea; Yasuaki Honda; Kouichi Matsuda | |||
| The Virtual Society (VS) project is a long term research initiative that is
investigating the evolution of the future electronic society. Our vision for
this electronic society is a shared 3D virtual world where users, from homes
and offices, can explore, interact and work. Our first implementation of an
infrastructure to support our investigation is known as CommunityPlace and has
been developed to support large-scale shared 3D spaces on the Internet using
the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). Obviously, such an ambitious
project cuts across many different domains. In this paper we outline the goals
of the Virtual Society project, discuss the architecture and implementation of
CommunityPlace with particular emphasis on Internet related technologies such
as VRML and present our views on the role of VRML and the Internet to support
large-scale shared 3D spaces. Keywords: Distributed virtual environment, Internet, Collaboration, Consistency, VRML | |||
| Negotiating Boundaries: Configuration Management in Software Development Teams | | BIBAK | 251-274 | |
| Hilda Tellioglu; Ina Wagner | |||
| Using case-study material from three small software development teams, this
paper analyses the regionalisation of 'design spaces'. Its main purpose is to
understand problems and practices of cooperative work in such spaces.
'Configuration management' is used to denote both a practice and supporting
software tools and their relationship. A major concern is how to develop
practices and tools that support cooperation across multiple organisational and
social boundaries while simultaneously being 'respectful of regionalisations'. Keywords: Configuration Management (CM), CSCW, Articulation work, Empirical studies | |||
| Informing General CSCW Product Development through Cooperative Design in Specific Work Domains | | BIBAK | 275-304 | |
| Kaj Grønbæk; Preben Mogensen | |||
| Cooperative analysis and design is often considered only to be applicable in
settings where a system is being developed solely for the 'user' participants
in the process. This paper, however, argues that there are quite good
prospects in applying cooperative analysis and design techniques in specific
use settings to inform development of general CSCW products. We describe and
discuss the application of cooperative -- i.e., participatory -- analysis and
design techniques in a project developing a general cooperative hypermedia
framework as well as specific hypermedia applications to support sharing of
materials in the engineering domain. In our project, a single engineering
company (Great Belt Link Ltd.) was chosen as the user organization. The paper
summarizes the process from observational studies, over a future workshop and
cooperative prototyping activities, to a pilot installation. We describe how
these activities informed the general hypermedia framework and application
design. Use scenarios and prototypes with example data from the users' daily
work were used as sources both to trigger design ideas and new insights
regarding work practice. Common participants in specific activities and
general development activities supported transfer of work domain knowledge into
general features of the product being developed. Mutual challenging
characterized the interaction between specific cooperative analysis and design
activities and general development activities. Prototypes, scenarios,
materials from the work practice, and concise bullet list summaries were used
as mediating artifacts in this interaction rather than comprehensive
requirement and design specifications. Keywords: Cooperative analysis, Cooperative design, Cooperative prototyping, CSCW,
Shared materials, Cooperative hypermedia, Product development | |||
| Supporting Cooperation through Customisation: The Tviews Approach | | BIBAK | 305-325 | |
| Markus Wasserschaff; Richard Bentley | |||
| User interfaces for groupware systems rarely reflect the different
requirements for support of their end-users. Here we present an approach to
designing multi-user interfaces for cooperative systems which builds on
previous work from the HCI community in the area of end-user customisation.
Using this approach we have developed an approach and a system prototype based
on tailorable views, or Tviews, which allows end-users engaged in group working
to configure their cooperative system interfaces to support their different
tasks, preferences and levels of expertise. Tviews are user interface
components which can be dragged and dropped over representations of application
objects to customise presentation, interaction and event updating properties,
and can themselves be tailored using high-level, incremental customisation
techniques. We discuss the implications of this work for CSCW system
development by reference to studies of work carried out by the CSCW community
which point to a need for more flexible and tailorable system interfaces. Keywords: BSCW, Customisation, Groupware user interfaces, Shared workspace systems,
Tailorability | |||
| Hypermedia Use in Group Work: Changing the Product, Process, and Strategy | | BIBAK | 327-368 | |
| Gloria Mark; Jorg M. Haake; Norbert A. Streitz | |||
| Hypermedia structures have been integrated with CSCW functionality to
develop the DOLPHIN system, an electronic meeting room environment. In this
paper, a study is reported investigating how the DOLPHIN environment affects
group work. Different aspects of group problem solving were examined to
understand the effects of working with hypermedia: the group's product,
cognitive factors, and the group process. The results showed that groups can
easily work with hypermedia structures, and that these structures influence
groups to produce a different product, to use a different strategy, and to use
a different collaborative style, namely of dividing up their labor. The
experimental results are explained in a model which suggests the involvement of
both procedural and semantic components in hypermedia use. We discuss wider
implications of hypermedia for CSCW and group work. Keywords: Collaborative style, Cooperation support, Division of labor, Electronic
meeting room, Electronic whiteboards, Empirical study, Evaluation, Group
process, Hypermedia | |||
| On the Relevance of Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action for CSCW | | BIBAK | 369-389 | |
| Wes Sharrock; Graham Button | |||
| We examine the argument put forward by Ojelanki Nygwenyama and Kalle
Lyytinen that Juergen Habermas' theory of communicative action is relevant for
the analysis and design of groupware systems. We suggest that CSCW champions
of Habermas often overlook the fact that his theory can be criticised in its
own right, and go on to outline its contestable character in an appraisal of
his understanding of the 'ideal speech situation'. We then move to Nygwenyama
and Lyytinen's implementation of Habermas' schema and argue that their
categories of analysis are both arbitrarily constructed and applied. In
conclusion, we question the extent to which grand, holistic, synthesising
sociological theories offer a way forward for designers and point to the
difficulties of practically applying Nygwenyama and Lyytinen's categories of
analysis. Keywords: Habermas, Groupware, Social action, Communicative action | |||
| "Cognition in the Wild," by Edwin Hutchins | | BIB | 391-395 | |
| Graham Button | |||
| "Aramis or The Love of Technology," by Bruno Latour | | BIB | 396-399 | |
| David Middleton | |||
| "Cognition and Communication at Work," edited by Y. Engestrom, and D. Middleton | | BIB | 400-402 | |
| Yvonne Rogers | |||