Making Contact: Getting the Group Communicating with Groupware

Cockburn, A. and Greenberg, S. (1993)
Making Contact: Getting the Group Communicating with Groupware. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Organizational Computing Systems - ACM COCS'93. (Milpitas, California), ACM Press, pages 31-41, November. Also as Report 1993-498-3, January.

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Abstract

While groupware is readily available, people on wide area networks-such as the Internet-have considerable trouble contacting each other and setting up groupware connections. To pinpoint why this occurs, this paper identifies human factors critical to getting a group communicating through groupware. It addresses how people find suitable partners, and how people choose appropriate communication mediums. These factors are discussed in detail, and form a design foundation for systems that promote social presence and that integrate communication.

Existing systems are critically reviewed and shown to be inadequate for general use over a wide area net, for they either do not meet some basic design criteria, or they require a very high technological entry level that is beyond the reach of most computer users. As an alternative, the paper presents the design considerations behind TELEFREEK, a flexible, extensible, and customizable platform for collaboration. Drawing on resources freely available to the Internet community, TELEFREEK assists people making contact with others, and integrates access to common communication facilities.

Bibtex entry

@INPROCEEDINGS { 1993-MakingContact.COCS,
CLASS = { CONFARTICLE },
AUTHOR = { Cockburn, A. and Greenberg, S. },
TITLE = { Making Contact: Getting the Group Communicating with Groupware },
BOOKTITLE = { Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Organizational Computing Systems - ACM COCS'93 },
PAGES = { 31-41 },
YEAR = { 1993 },
PUBLISHER = { ACM Press },
MONTH = { November },
ADDRESS = { Milpitas, California },
NOTE = { Also as Report 1993-498-3, January },
}