Collaborative software or groupware is application software designed to help people working

on a common task to attain their goals. One of the earliest definitions of groupware is "intentional
group processes plus software to support them".[1]
As regards available interaction, collaborative software may be divided into: real-time
collaborative editing platforms that allow multiple users to engage in live, simultaneous and
reversible editing of a single file (usually a document), and version control (also known as
revision control and source control) platforms, which allow separate users to make parallel edits
to a file, while preserving every saved edit by every user as multiple files (that are variants of the
original file).[citation needed]
Collaborative software is a broad concept that overlaps considerably with computer-supported
cooperative work (CSCW). According to Carstensen and Schmidt (1999)[2] groupware is part of
CSCW. The authors claim that CSCW, and thereby groupware, addresses "how collaborative
activities and their coordination can be supported by means of computer systems."
The use of collaborative software in the work space creates a collaborative working
environment (CWE).
Finally, collaborative software relates to the notion of collaborative work systems, which are
conceived as any form of human organization that emerges any time that collaboration takes
place, whether it is formal or informal, intentional or unintentional.[3] Whereas the groupware or
collaborative software pertains to the technological elements of computer-supported cooperative
work, collaborative work systems become a useful analytical tool to understand the behavioral
and organizational variables that are associated to the broader concept of CSCW.[4][5]

Contents

 1Origins
 2Groupware
o 2.1Design and implementation issues
 3Groupware and levels of collaboration
o 3.1Collaborative management (coordination) tools
 4Collaborative software and human interaction
 5See also
o 5.1Closely related terms
o 5.2Groupware type of applications
o 5.3Other related type of applications
o 5.4Other related terms
o 5.5Lists of collaborative software
 6References
o 6.1Citations
o 6.2Sources
 7External links

Origins[edit]
See also: MUD and Intelligence amplification §  Douglas Engelbart: Augmenting Human Intellect
Douglas Engelbart first envisioned collaborative computing in 1951 and documented his vision in
1962,[6] with working prototypes in full operational use by his research team by the mid-1960s,
[7]
 and held the first public demonstration of his work in 1968 in what is now referred to as "The
Mother of All Demos."[8] The following year, Engelbart's lab was hooked into the ARPANET, the
first computer network, enabling them to extend services to a broader userbase.
Online collaborative gaming software began between early networked computer users. In
1975, Will Crowther created Colossal Cave Adventure on a DEC PDP-10 computer. As internet
connections grew, so did the numbers of users and multi-user games. In 1978 Roy Trubshaw, a
student at University of Essex in the United Kingdom, created the game MUD (Multi-User
Dungeon).
The US Government began using truly collaborative applications in the early 1990s.[9] One of the
first robust applications was the Navy's Common Operational Modeling, Planning and Simulation
Strategy (COMPASS).[10] The COMPASS system allowed up to 6 users to create point-to-point
connections with one another; the collaborative session only remained while at least one user
stayed active, and would have to be recreated if all six logged out. MITRE improved on that
model by hosting the collaborative session on a server that each user logged into. Called the
Collaborative Virtual Workstation (CVW), this allowed the session to be set up in a virtual file
cabinet and virtual rooms, and left as a persistent session that could be joined later.[11]
In 1996, Pavel Curtis, who had built MUDs at PARC, created PlaceWare, a server that simulated
a one-to-many auditorium, with side chat between "seat-mates", and the ability to invite a limited
number of audience members to speak. In 1997, engineers at GTE used the PlaceWare engine
in a commercial version of MITRE's CVW, calling it InfoWorkSpace (IWS). In 1998, IWS was
chosen as the military standard for the standardized Air Operations Center.[12] The IWS product
was sold to General Dynamics and then later to Ezenia.[13]

Groupware[edit]
Collaborative software was originally designated as groupware and this term can be traced as far
back as the late 1980s, when Richman and Slovak (1987)[14] wrote: "Like an electronic sinew that
binds teams together, the new groupware aims to place the computer squarely in the middle of
communications among managers, technicians, and anyone else who interacts in groups,
revolutionizing the way they work."
Even further back, in 1978 Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz coined the term groupware; their initial
1978 definition of groupware was, "intentional group processes plus software to support them."
Later in their article they went on to explain groupware as "computer-mediated culture... an
embodiment of social organization in hyperspace." Groupware integrates co-evolving human and
tool systems, yet is simply a single system.[15]
In the early 1990s the first commercial groupware products were delivered, and big companies
such as Boeing and IBM started using electronic meeting systems for key internal projects. Lotus
Notes appeared as a major example of that product category, allowing remote group
collaboration when the internet was still in its infancy. Kirkpatrick and Losee (1992)[16] wrote then:
"If GROUPWARE really makes a difference in productivity long term, the very definition of an office
may change. You will be able to work efficiently as a member of a group wherever you have your
computer. As computers become smaller and more powerful, that will mean anywhere." In 1999,
Achacoso created and introduced the first wireless groupware.[17][18][19]

Design and implementation issues[edit]

The complexity of groupware development is still an issue. One reason for this is the socio-
technical dimension of groupware. Groupware designers do not only have to address technical
issues (as in traditional software development) but also consider the organizational
aspects [20] and the social group processes that should be supported with the groupware
application. Some examples for issues in groupware development are:

 Persistence is needed in some sessions. Chat and voice communications are routinely
non-persistent and evaporate at the end of the session. Virtual room and online file cabinets
can persist for years. The designer of the collaborative space needs to consider the
information duration needs and implement accordingly.
 Authentication has always been a problem with groupware. When connections are made
point-to-point, or when log-in registration is enforced, it's clear who is engaged in the
 session. However, audio and unmoderated sessions carry the risk of unannounced 'lurkers'
who observe but do not announce themselves or contribute.[21][22]
 Until recently, bandwidth issues at fixed location limited full use of the tools. These are
exacerbated with mobile devices.
 Multiple input and output streams bring concurrency issues into the groupware
applications.
 Motivational issues are important, especially in settings where no pre-defined group
process was in place.
 Closely related to the motivation aspect is the question of reciprocity. Ellis and
others[23] have shown that the distribution of efforts and benefits has to be carefully balanced
in order to ensure that all required group members really participate.
 Real-time communication via groupware can lead to a lot of noise, over-communication
and information overload.[citation needed]
One approach for addressing these issues is the use of design patterns for groupware design.
[24]
 The patterns identify recurring groupware design issues and discuss design choices in a way
that all stakeholders can participate in the groupware development process.

Groupware and levels of collaboration[edit]

Groupware can be divided into three categories depending on the level of collaboration:[25][26]

1. Communication can be thought of as unstructured interchange of information. A phone

call or an IM Chat discussion are examples of this.
2. Conferencing (or collaboration level, as it is called in the academic papers that discuss
these levels) refers to interactive work toward a shared goal. Brainstorming or voting are
examples of this.
3. Co-ordination refers to complex interdependent work toward a shared goal. A good
metaphor for understanding this is to think about a sports team; everyone has to
contribute the right play at the right time as well as adjust their play to the unfolding
situation - but everyone is doing something different - in order for the team to win. That is
complex interdependent work toward a shared goal: collaborative management.
Collaborative management (coordination) tools[edit]
Collaborative management tools facilitate and manage group activities. Examples include:

 Electronic calendars (also called time management software) — schedule events and

automatically notify and remind group members
 Project management systems — schedule, track, and chart the steps in a project as it is
being completed
 Online proofing — share, review, approve, and reject web proofs, artwork, photos, or
videos between designers, customers, and clients
 Workflow systems — collaborative management of tasks and documents within a
knowledge-based business process
 Knowledge management systems — collect, organize, manage, and share various forms
of information
 Enterprise bookmarking — collaborative bookmarking engine to tag, organize, share, and
search enterprise data
 Prediction markets — let a group of people predict together the outcome of future events
 Extranet systems (sometimes also known as 'project extranets') — collect, organize,
manage and share information associated with the delivery of a project (e.g.: the
construction of a building)
 Intranet systems — quickly share company information to members within a company via
Internet (e.g.: marketing and product info)[27]
 Social software systems — organize social relations of groups
 Online spreadsheets — collaborate and share structured data and information
 Client portals — interact and share with your clients in a private online environment[citation
needed]

Collaborative software and human interaction[edit]

The design intent of collaborative software (groupware) is to transform the way documents
and rich media are shared in order to enable more effective team collaboration.
Collaboration, with respect to information technology, seems to have several definitions. Some
are defensible but others are so broad they lose any meaningful application. Understanding the
differences in human interactions is necessary to ensure the appropriate technologies are
employed to meet interaction needs.
There are three primary ways in which humans interact: conversations, transactions, and
collaborations.
Conversational interaction is an exchange of information between two or more participants where
the primary purpose of the interaction is discovery or relationship building. There is no central
entity around which the interaction revolves but is a free exchange of information with no defined
constraints, generally focused on personal experiences.[28] Communication technology such as
telephones, instant messaging, and e-mail are generally sufficient for conversational interactions.
Transactional interaction involves the exchange of transaction entities where a major function of
the transaction entity is to alter the relationship between participants.
In collaborative interactions the main function of the participants' relationship is to alter a
collaboration entity (i.e., the converse of transactional). When teams collaborate on projects it is
called Collaborative project management.

See also[edit]
 Collaboration technologies
 Telecommuting
Closely related terms[edit]

 Computer supported cooperative work

 Integrated collaboration environment
Groupware type of applications[edit]

 Content management system

 Customer relationship management software
 Document management system
 Enterprise content management
 Event management software
 Intranet
Other related type of applications[edit]

 Massively distributed collaboration

 Online consultation
 Online deliberation
Other related terms[edit]
 Collaborative innovation network
 Commons-based peer production
 Electronic business
 Information technology management
 Management information systems
 Management
 Office of the future
 Operational transformation
 Organizational Memory System
 Worknet
 Cloud collaboration
 Document collaboration
 MediaWiki
 Wikipedia
Lists of collaborative software[edit]

 List of collaborative software

 List of social bookmarking websites
 Intranet portal
 Enterprise portal

References[edit]
Citations[edit]
1. ^ Johnson-Lenz, Peter; Johnson-Lenz, Trudy (March 1991). "Post-mechanistic groupware
primitives: rhythms, boundaries and containers". International Journal of Man-Machine
Studies. 34 (3): 395–417. doi:10.1016/0020-7373(91)90027-5.
2. ^ Carstensen, P.H.; Schmidt, K. (1999). "Computer supported cooperative work: new
challenges to systems design". Citeseer.ist.psu.edu. Retrieved  2007-08-03.
3. ^ Beyerlein, M; Freedman, S.; McGee, G.; Moran, L. (2002). Beyond Teams: Building the
Collaborative Organization. The Collaborative Work Systems series, Wiley.
4. ^ Wilson, P. (1991). Computer Supported Cooperative Work: An Introduction. Kluwer
Academic Pub. ISBN 978-0792314462
5. ^ Aparicio, M and Costa, C. (2012) Collaborative systems: characteristics and features. In
Proceedings of the 30th ACM international conference on Design of communication (SIGDOC
'12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 141-146. doi:10.1145/2379057.2379087
6. ^ Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework Archived 2011-05-04 at
the Wayback Machine, Douglas C. Engelbart, 1962
7. ^ A Research Center for Augmenting Human Intellect, Douglas C. Engelbart and William
K. English, 1968.
8. ^ "1968 Demo Overview and Links to Video". Dougengelbart.org. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
9. ^ Bullen, Christine V.; Bennett, John L. (1990).  "Learning from user experience with
groupware".  Proceedings of the 1990 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work
- CSCW '90. Portal.acm.org. pp.  291–302.  doi:10.1145/99332.99362.  ISBN  0897914023.
Retrieved 2014-06-25.
10. ^ Heritage of Delivering Successful Warfighting Solutions
11. ^ Collaborative virtual environments for analysis and decision support, Mark Mayburry
12. ^ "(Press Release) InfoWorkSpace saves lives in Iraq - Ezenia!, Inc". Ezenia.com.
Retrieved 2014-06-25.
13. ^ "(Press Release) InfoWorkSpace - Ezenia!, Inc". Ezenia.com. Archived from the
original on 2014-05-27. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
 14. ^ Richman, Louis S; Slovak, Julianne (June 8, 1987). "SOFTWARE CATCHES THE
TEAM SPIRIT New computer programs may soon change the way groups of people work
together -- and start delivering the long-awaited payoff from office automation.fouttoune".
Money.cnn.com.
15. ^ Johnson-Lenz, Peter (30 April 1990).  "Rhythms, Boundaries, and Containers".
Awakening Technology. Archived from  the original on 9 September 2011. Retrieved 27
July  2011.
16. ^ Kirkpatrick, D.; Losee, S. (March 23, 1992).  "HERE COMES THE PAYOFF FROM PCs New
network software lets brainstormers around a table all  talk  at once on their keyboards. The result: measurable
productivity gains from desktop computing". Money.cnn.com.
17. ^ "First Wireless Groupware Hits Palmtops: GroupServe Launches its Wireless-
Accessible Discussion Service".  merysis. December 7, 1999.
18. ^ Richardson, Jake (January 31, 2000). "GroupServe gets $1M, new executive
director".  Washington Business Journal.
19. ^ "GroupServe markets "in-time communications" to wireless business customers". RCR
Wireless News. 1999-11-30. Retrieved 2019-11-11.
20. ^ D'Atri A., De Marco M., Casalino N. (2008). “Interdisciplinary Aspects of Information
Systems Studies”, pp. 1-416, Physica-Verlag, Springer, Germany, Doi 10.1007/978-3-7908-2010-
2 ISBN 978-3-7908-2009-6.
21. ^ A Case Study in Technology Transfer of Collaboration Tools
22. ^ Collaborating securely - Can it be done?
23. ^ Ellis, Clarence A.; Gibbs, Simon J.; Rein, Gail (1991).  "Groupware: some issues and
experiences"  (PDF).  Communications of the ACM.  34: 39–58. doi:10.1145/99977.99987.
24. ^ Till Schümmer and Stephan Lukosch. 2007. Patterns for Computer-Mediated Interaction
(Wiley Software Patterns Series). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-02561-1
25. ^ "Groupware - Communication, Collaboration and Coordination". Lotus Development
Corporation. 1995. Archived from the original  on July 13, 2011.
26. ^ Casalino N., Draoli M. (2009), “Governance and Organizational Aspects of an
Experimental Groupware in the Italian Public Administration to Support Multi-Institutional
Partnerships”, in Information Systems: People, Organizations, Institutions, and Trchnologies,
D’Atri A., Saccà D. (Eds.), Physica-Verlag, Springer, Heidelberg, Germany, pp. 81-89, ISBN 978-
3-7908-2147-5, doi 10.1007/978-3-7908-2148-2_11
27. ^ Chaffey, Dave (1998). Groupware, Workflow, and Intranets: Reengineering the
Enterprise with Collaborative Software. Boston: Digital Press.
28. ^ Dunbar, R. I.; Marriott, A.; Duncan, N. D. (1997).  "Human conversational
behavior"  (PDF).  Human Nature : An Interdisciplinary Biosocial Perspective.  8 (3): 231–
246.  doi:10.1007/BF02912493. Archived from  the original  (PDF)  on 24 November 2014.
Retrieved 3 December 2014.

Sources[edit]
 Lockwood, A. (2008). The Project Manager's Perspective on Project Management
Software Packages. Avignon, France. Retrieved February 24, 2009.
 Pedersen, A.A. (2008). Collaborative Project Management. Retrieved February 25, 2009.
 Pinnadyne, Collaboration Made Easy. Retrieved November 15, 2009.
 Romano, N.C., Jr., Nunamaker, J.F., Jr., Fang, C., & Briggs, R.O. (2003). A Collaborative
Project Management Architecture. Retrieved February 25, 2009. System Sciences, 2003.
Proceedings of the 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Volume, Issue, 6-9 Jan.
2003 Page(s): 12 pp
 M.Katerine (kit) Brown, Brenda Huetture, and Char James-Tanny (2007), Managing
Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools,
Worldware Publishing, Plano. ISBN 978-1598220285