Computer Supported Cooperative Work
As a Computer Supported Cooperative Work or Computer Supported Collaborative Work ( CSCW ), dt computer-assisted or computer-based group work, an interdisciplinary research field of computer science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics computer science, economics, media studies and various other disciplines is called that and deal with group work cooperation and group work supporting information and communication technologies is concerned; the central research topics of CSCW So these are the collaborations between people and their supportability with computers.
Computer Supported Cooperative Work ( CSCW ) is the name of the field of research which examines on an interdisciplinary basis, as individuals work together in groups or teams and how they can be supported by information and communication technology. The goal of all efforts in the field of CSCW is to investigate using all available means of information and communication technology, group processes, thereby increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of group work. The focus on knowledge-intensive collaboration processes is the term Smart Collaboration. It thus connects to the interdisciplinary field of knowledge management. In more recent developments, the discipline has also communication and cooperation scenarios beyond the world of work facing (eg online communities in the leisure and home use).
The tools for cooperation within groups and teams are referred to as groupware ( for weakly-structured processes ) or workflow management systems ( for highly structured work processes ); This involves both hardware (for example, cameras, displays ) and software.
In the research on CSCW three closely related research areas are distinguished ( for hare Kamp 1994):
- Developing an understanding of cooperation and coordination
- The development of concepts and tools for the support of labor processes
- The evaluation of these concepts and tools
Colloquially, the terms CSCW, groupware and workgroup computing are frequently used largely interchangeably.
History
The term CSCW was coined by a workshop in Endicott House (MA) by Irene Greif and Paul Cashman 1984.
The first international conference was held in 1986 in Austin, Texas instead ( CSCW '86 ), the next in February 2010 in Savannah, Georgia. In odd-numbered years, the ECSCW is organized in Europe: 2005 in Paris, 2007 in Limerick, Ireland, 2009 in Vienna, conference proceedings are available online.
The beginnings of the CSCW research go back to work from the early 80s, which are also referred to as euphoric phase.
End of the 80s disillusionment turned a lack of acceptance; this time is also called the hangover phase.
In the 90s, the pragmatic phase ensued, in the course of practical and usable solutions have been developed that rely less on automation of collaboration processes, but on a flexible support.
A variant of the CSCW approach is the Computer -Supported Cooperative Learning ( CSCL).
System Categories
There are different types of systems. Basically, these are divided into the following types:
- Conference systems
- Decision support
- Multi-user editors
- Hypermedia
- Coordination systems
- Distributed office processes
Conference systems
Conferencing systems are designed so that several participants, which are usually located in remote locations can discuss a common problem. Here, the information and document access allows you to view information from all participants. Mostly is guaranteed in such systems anonymity as a feature, so that for example a vote can be made anonymously. Conferencing systems can be divided into 3 categories:
- Conference center:
The conferencing system is central, generally housed in a room or office. Special audiovisual tools enable good presentation technology and information processing. Also, the transfer documents should be possible.
- Teleconferencing:
This type of conference is free to use or build most easily as it can be established, for example via ISDN as a conference call between multiple listening in. But even in this sector distributed video conferencing are possible.
- Electronic meeting systems:
Electronic Meeting Systems ( EMS) for the synchronous or asynchronous interaction between the meeting participants, supported and structured by specific tools such as brainstorming, voting and discussions. Meetings are organized and controlled by a moderator on an agenda. Contributions are usually anonymously. Results automatically logged. For synchronous meetings EMS are often to conference calls or web conferences ( screen sharing ) supplements.
- Computer conferences:
Computer conferences allow a distributed asynchronous interaction between the different participants. At various communities of interest, individual chat rooms can be set up, in which the group members can interact with each other. The most familiar type of computer conferencing are likely to Internet usenet news.
Multi-user editors
Multiuser editors describe systems that allow the simultaneous (synchronous ) and / or deferred ( asynchronous ) processing of texts, images or other content by multiple users. While synchronous systems, especially with the technology of the shared workspace (shared view) according to the principle WYSIWIS (What You See Is What I See ) work, asynchronous systems support collaboration, especially through comments ( annotations) and the traceability of changes by versioning.
The focus of multi-user editors is (as of 2007) on the production of texts. However, software is now available, can be created and modified with the cooperative other media types, such as open canvas 1.1b Paint or other chat applications for synchronous creating images. Also for asynchronous video creation already exist software solutions.
One application is the collaborative writing.
Hypermedia
Electronic documents connections ( hyperlinks ) to other media such as graphics, sound or video. They allow multimedia information presentations and access via links ...
Coordination systems
They allow the coordination of necessary for the solution of a task steps of the individual participants of a group. You model the flow of data, function, interaction or communication within an organizational structure. These systems form a foundation and has a variety of modules that support networker in the development and management of a network.