Starting Points for CSCW Topics

The text Readings in Groupware and Computer Supported Cooperative Work. written and edited by Baecker (1993) has some excellent but somewhat dated introductions to various topics.

Also, search the HCI Bibliography www.hcibib.org for newer papers. I can give you access to the PDF files posted on the ACM Digital Library through my membership.

I have many books. theses and proceedings on CSCW in my office.

Case Studies in DeskTop Conferencing

A 'bottom up' way of understanding group behaviour is to develop and introduce technology, seeing what mistakes were made, understanding those errors by visiting the existing literature, and repairing the errors. The first 3 papers describe the development and evolution of the Xerox Parc Colab. Although developed as a face to face meeting tool, many of the issues raised are identical to desktop conferencing ( in their meeting room, all people had a computer as well as a shared front screen). The fourth paper summarizes another group's experiences in developing desktop conferencing systems for drawing, while the last one describes the evolution of a video-based desktop conferencing system.

1. Stefik, Foster, Bobrow,Kahn, Lanning, and Suchman (1987) Beyond the Chalkboard: Computer support for collaboration and problem solving in meetings. Communications of the ACM, 30(1), January. p32-47.
2. Stefik, Bobrow et al, (1987) WYSIWIS Revised: Early Experiences with Multiuser Interfaces. p585-595, Text
3. Tatar, Foster and Bobrow (1991) Design for Conversation: Lessons from Cognoter. 596-608. Text. Also in Greenberg, S. (1991) Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Groupware, Academic Press.
4. Greenberg, S., Roseman, M., Webster, D. and Bohnet, R. (1992). Human and technical factors of distributed group drawing tools. Interacting with Computers, 4(1), p364-392. Reprinted in Greenberg, S. (1995) Groupware for Real Time Drawing: A Designer's Guide. McGraw Hill.
5. Ishii, Kobayashi, and Grudin (1993) Integration of interpersonal space and shared workspace: Clearboard design and experiments. ACM TOIS. Reprinted in Greenberg, S. (1995) Groupware for Real Time Drawing: A Designer's Guide. McGraw Hill.

Informal Communication and Media Spaces

One of the problems of groupware is how to actually get into an electronic meeting. In real life, we rely on casual interaction and informal communication to a great extent, both to coordinate moment by moment issues in our work, and as opportunities to initiate and continue work. These papers discuss the behavioural foundations behind informal communication, systems (particularly media spaces) that afford casual interaction, and problems with them.

1. Kraut, Fish et al (1990) Informal Communication in Organizations: Form, Function and Technology. p287-314, Text.
2. Olson and Bly (1991) The Portland Experience: A report on a distributed research group. in Greenberg, S. (1991) Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Groupware, Academic Press.
3. Fish, Kraut, and Root (1992) Evaluating video as a technology for informal communication. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM Press.
4. Tang, Issacs and Rua (1994) Supporting Distributed Groups with a Montage of Lightweight Interactions. ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work.
5. Dourish and Bly (1992) Portholes: Supporting Awareness in Distributed Group Work. p809-815, Text.
6. Greenberg, S. (1996) Peepholes: Low cost awareness of one's community. CHI '96 Conference Companion.
7. Harper, R. () Why people do and don't wear active badges. J CSCW. 4(4), 297-318.

Awareness

• Dourish, P. and Bellotti, V. (1992) Awareness and coordination in shared workspaces. Proc CSCW '92.
• Gutwin, C. Excerpts from PhD Thesis: Chapters 2,3,5 & 6.
• Gutwin, C. and Greenberg, S. (1998) Effects of awareness support on groupware usability. Proc ACM CHI'98 (to appear).
• Hutchins, E. The Technology of Team Navigation. In Galegher, Kraut, Egido (Eds) Intellectual Teamwork, LEA Press.

Spaces and Places

The notion of "real time groupware" is an artificial one. In reality, people move effortlessly from real time to asynchronous work, from co-located to distributed settings. Space and place based systems are one way of achieving any time, any place groupware, as well as a way of supporting long-term interactions. These papers introduce the notions of spaces and places, and systems that support that.

1. Harrison S. and Dourish P. (1996). Re-place-ing space: The roles of place and space in collaborative systems. In Proceedings of the ACM CSCW'96 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Boston, USA, ACM Press.
2. Greenberg and Roseman (working paper) Using a Room-Based Metaphor to Ease Transitions in Groupware.
3. Fitzpatrick G., Mansfield T., and Kaplan S. (1996). Locales framework: Exploring foundations for collaboration support. In Proceedings of the OzCHI'96 Sixth Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction, pp. 34-41, Hamilton, New Zealand, November 24-27, IEEE Computer Society Press.
4. Fitzpatrick G., Kaplan S., and Mansfield T. (1996). Physical spaces, virtual places and social worlds: A study of work in the virtual. In Proceedings of the ACM CSCW'96 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Boston, USA, ACM Press.
5. Benford S., Brown C., Reynard G., and Greenhalgh C. (1996). Shared spaces: Transportation, artificiality, and spaciality. In Proceedings of the ACM CSCW'96 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Boston, USA, ACM Press.