Download Groupware

Computer
Supported
Collaborative
Work
Henrry Rodríguez
Introduction
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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
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HCI: Single user-computer and CSCW: User-computer-user
performing co-operative activities
Groupware refers to the technology used by people while
working together.
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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
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CSCW is the study of the tools and techniques of groupware as
well as the psychological, social, and organisational effects.
McGrath J.E: his view on
groupware
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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.
Examples of CSCW
systems
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Email
Shared database/hypertext
Videoconferencing
Chat systems
Real-time shared application
 Aspects
 Drawing
 Games
collaborative writing
Core stones of group
activity
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Communication
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Collaboration
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Support for ongoing and direct communication among people
Text, voice, video, and Face to face communication
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
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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
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distributing information
increasing organizational efficiency
creating electronic democracy
challenging traditional hierarchies.
Computer mediated
communication (cont.)
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+networking ---> promote long-distance
collaboration
Branching
Emotions, Flaming, free rider
Distance learning
Virtual communities
Time-space matrix
Same
place
Same time
Different times
Face to face
Asynchrounous
interaction
Different Synchrounous Asynchrounous
places
distributed
distributed
Same place same time
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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
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Usually it needs a shared
space
Co-ordination tools
Project scheduling
Different places same time
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Distance
Video conferencing
Desktop conferencing
 Replication
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on others’ screen
Chat, IRC, ICQ, CuSeeMe, Instant messager,
Shared-Editor session, Lectures
Different places different
times
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Electronically file transfer
Durable messages
WWW in CSCW
 E-groups,
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E-mail
BSCW, Newsgroups
Awareness
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Who is/was who
Who does/did what
What is done
Are you there? From E-mail to F2F
Couple/Uncouple awareness.
Other issues
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Departure/adding users to the team
Anonymity
Distinct roles
Users who need each other to complete a task
Security
Discussion
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Email- what is shared?
Group vs. Community
From Here and Now to Everywhere and Forever
[5]
Human-human interaction
References
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[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.