Richard Bentley, GMD
The session is broadly motivated by two recent workshops held on the topic of 'CSCW and the Web'; an ERCIM/W4G event held here at GMD last month, and a W3C workshop held in Boston late last year (which some of the panelists attended). It is clear from the response to these workshops, and from discussions in other forums such as Internet newsgroups like comp.groupware, that there is great interest in using the Web to support more collaborative forms of working than currently the case (for example, a request being seen more and more frequently in comp.groupware is for information on the utility of the Web versus groupware tools like Lotus Notes in supporting inter- and intra-organisational collaborative work). At both the above workshops a number of Web-based collaborative systems, research prototypes and products, were demonstrated, and the W3C has even suggested that changes in Web protocols and architecture might be appropriate to better support collaboration.
Despite this interest it is also clear that, in large part, the Web community is unaware of much of the body of work already produced on the design, deployment and evaluation of systems to support collaborative work. This work, carried out under the auspices of the field of Computer Support for Collaborative Work (CSCW), highlights many important questions (and proposes a number of solutions) in relation to the development of collaborative systems, or 'groupware'. It is the opinion of the panel chair, based on the outcomes of the two workshops mentioned above and experience in both the CSCW and W3 research areas, that much of the work in the W3 community in this area currently being undertaken would benefit from a sensitivity to the issues highlighted and discussed in the CSCW community, as well as a number of other areas.
As such, this panel is a chance for members from diverse but relevant backgrounds to discuss the notion of 'CSCW and the Web' with the goal of placing the current efforts in the W3 community in the larger context. It is not intended to be a deliberately contentious session (though there's obviously room for different opinions!) but more one which attempts to make explicit key issues in developing successful groupware applications - from group, task and organisational perspectives (and more) - in the context of the W3 as a platform for inter- and intra-organisational collaboration support. Issues of activity awareness, privacy, 'organisational memory', business process, groupware interface design, feedback and feedthrough, critical mass of end-users, and many more as potentially relevant to the discussion. The overall issue under discussion is the notion of the Web as a medium for enabling cooperative work, both generally and specifically to different group, organisational and collaboration contexts.
The members of the panel provides a variety of perspectives on the issue. They collectively combine experience and expertise in the areas of W3, CSCW, organisational issues, workflow systems and more. In addition, members have experience of alternative (perhaps complementary) approaches which may be (more) suitable for supporting (different kinds of) collaborative work, such as distributed object-oriented techniques.
Mail to the Organizers
Created: 4 April 1996