CComputerSSupportedCCollaborativeWWork

Henrry Rodríguez

Introduction The term was coined by Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz in

October 4, 1978. [3]. "Groupware is often used to specifically denote the

technology that people use to work together, whereas CSCW refers to the field that studies the use of that technology." Tom Brinck [2]

Concept: A class of software that helps groups of colleagues (workgroups) attached to a local-area network organize their activities [1].

CSCW and Groupware HCI: Single user-computer and CSCW: User-computer-user

performing co-operative activities Groupware refers to the technology used by people while

working together. System that support groups of people engaged in a common

task or goals and that provide an interface to a shared environment.[Ellis, Gibbs, Rein, 1991]

CSCW focus on groupware CSCW is the study of the tools and techniques of groupware as

well as the psychological, social, and organisational effects.

When planning a collaborative work [4] it should be take into account the following elements:

General goals and specific goals Tasks to be performed

Activities or steps group/individual Focus on

Acting Group (or Group Interaction Process) Behaviour Setting.

properties of the individuals, the standing group (or group structure), the task/situation, and the properties of the environment.

McGrath J.E: his view on groupware

Examples of CSCW systems

Email Shared database/hypertext Videoconferencing Chat systems Real-time shared application

Aspects collaborative writing Drawing Games

Core stones of group activity Communication

Support for ongoing and direct communication among people Text, voice, video, and Face to face communication

Collaboration The act of joint co-operation in solving a problem or

undertaking a task - e.g. finding a place and a time to meet, decision making.

Support for sharing info such as awareness of others’ activities Co-ordination

Orchestra the communication and the collaboration Adjusting individual contributions to fit into the overall task Includes distributing tasks to team members, and reviewing

their performance

Computer mediated communication

distributing information increasing organizational efficiency creating electronic democracy challenging traditional hierarchies.

Computer mediated communication (cont.)

+networking ---> promote long-distance collaboration

Branching Emotions, Flaming, free rider Distance learning Virtual communities

Time-space matrix

Same time Different times

Sameplace

Face to faceAsynchrounousinteraction

Differentplaces

Synchrounousdistributed

Asynchrounousdistributed

Same place same time

Meeting face-to-face. Brainstorming, voting, and ranking.

Managers spent about half of their time in meetings

Difficult to keep a fixed focus and decision making

E-whiteboard, WYSIWIS, Meeting rooms (1981 Arizona)

Same place different times

Usually it needs a shared space

Co-ordination tools Project scheduling

Different places same time

Distance Video conferencing Desktop conferencing

Replication on others’ screen Chat, IRC, ICQ, CuSeeMe, Instant messager,

Shared-Editor session, Lectures

Different places different times

Electronically file transfer Durable messages WWW in CSCW

E-groups, BSCW, Newsgroups E-mail

Awareness

Who is/was who Who does/did what What is done Are you there? From E-mail to F2F Couple/Uncouple awareness.

Other issues

Departure/adding users to the team Anonymity Distinct roles Users who need each other to complete a task Security

Discussion

Email- what is shared? Group vs. Community From Here and Now to Everywhere and Forever

[5] Human-human interaction

References [1] http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/g/groupware.html [2] http://www.cs.tcd.ie/Sotirios.Terzis/CSCW.html [3] http://www.awakentech.com/ search for Groupware:Coining and Defining It.

We [Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz ] first coined the term "groupware" in our research notes on October 4, 1978 during our work with Murray Turoff and S. Roxanne Hiltz on the Electronic Information Exchange System (EIES) at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. We wrote about it in an informal paper, "On CC and Citizen Participation," dated February 2, 1979, that we made available on EIES ("CC" = computer conferencing).

[4] McGrath, J. E., 1984, Groups, interaction, and performance. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall.

[5] Jonathan Grudin, Group Dynamics and Ubiquitous Computing. Comm. ACM 45, 12 (Dec. 2002), 74-78.