Workspace Awareness in Real-Time Distributed Groupware

Gutwin, C. and Greenberg, S. (1995)
Workspace Awareness in Real-Time Distributed Groupware. Research report 95-575-27, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

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Abstract

The rich person-to-person interaction afforded by shared physical workspaces allows people to maintain up-to-the minute knowledge about others' interaction with the workspace. This knowledge is workspace awareness, part of the glue that allows groups to collaborate effectively. In real-time groupware systems that provide a shared virtual workspace, the possibilities for interaction are impoverished when compared with physical workspaces, partly because support for workspace awareness has not generally been a priority in groupware design. In this paper, we present the concept of workspace awareness as one key to supporting the richness evident in face-to-face interaction. We construct a conceptual framework that describes the elements and mechanisms of workspace awareness, and then show several widgets that can be embedded in relaxed-WYSIWIS groupware systems to support the maintenance of workspace awareness.

Bibtex entry

@TECHREPORT { 1995-Awareness.Report95-575-27,
CLASS = { REPORT },
AUTHOR = { Gutwin, C. and Greenberg, S. },
TITLE = { Workspace Awareness in Real-Time Distributed Groupware },
INSTITUTION = { Dept. of Computer Science, University of Calgary },
ADDRESS = { Calgary, Alberta, Canada },
YEAR = { 1995 },
NUMBER = { 95-575-27 },
}