Collaborative software
Collaborative software (also referred to as
groupware or workgroup support sys-
tems) is software designed to help people in-
volved in a common task achieve their goals.
Collaborative software is the basis for com-
puter supported cooperative work.
“It is not a question of how well each pro-
cess works; the question is how well they all
work together.” – Lloyd Dobyns and Clare
Crawford-Mason, Think about quality
Such software systems as email, calendar-
ing, text chat, wiki, and bookmarking belong
to this category. It has been suggested that
Metcalfe’s law — the more people who use
something, the more valuable it becomes —
applies to such software.
The more general term social software ap-
plies to systems used outside the workplace,
for example, online dating services and social
networks like Friendster, Orkut and Face-
book. The study of computer-supported col-
laboration includes the study of this software
and social phenomena associated with it.
Overview
The design intent is to transform the way
documents and rich media are shared in or-
der
to
enable more
effective
team
collaboration.
Collaboration, with respect to information
technology, seems to have several defini-
tions. Some are defensible but others are so
broad they lose any meaningful application.
Understanding the differences in human in-
teractions is necessary to ensure the appro-
priate technologies are employed to meet in-
teraction needs.
There are three primary ways in which hu-
mans interact: conversations, transactions,
and collaborations.
Conversational interaction is an exchange
of information between two or more parti-
cipants where the primary purpose of the in-
teraction is discovery or relationship build-
ing. There is no central entity around which
the interaction revolves but is a free ex-
change of information with no defined con-
straints. Communication technology such as
telephones, instant messaging, and e-mail
are generally sufficient for conversational
interactions.
Transactional interaction involves the