CSCW - Four Characters in Search of a Context

Abstract

The title of this paper was chosen to highlight the fact that the label CSCW, although widely adopted as the acronym for the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work, has been applied to computer applications of very different ilk. It is not at all clear what are the unique identifying elements of this research area. This paper provides a framework for approaching the issue of cooperative work and its possible computer support. The core issues are identified and prospects for the field are outlined.

Influencia de estilos de aprendizaje y roles de equipo en el aprendizaje colaborativo soportado por computadoras

“…En este contexto, uno de los tipos de aplicaciones más utilizadas son las herramientas de aprendizaje colaborativo (CSCL), las cuales tienen como principal objetivo proveer un ambiente de trabajo virtual en la cual personas que se encuentran distantes físicamente puedan compartir y construir nuevo conocimiento mediante el uso de la computadora [Bannon and Schmidt 1991]. Sin embargo, la forma en que se agrupan los alumnos puede afectar el desempeño grupal.…”

Supporting social awareness among university students in 3D CVEs: benefits and limitations

“…For example, the efforts in connection with putting out information about oneself, costs with the "codification of knowledge" [2] and generally the costs of maintaining of a repository of virtual places according to the intended scenarios [6] can be significant due to complicated building. The information presented in virtual places may be of varying quality and give "a skewed", "misrepresented" [3] picture of the persons, activities and social network. Therefore, assisting and standardizing creation of the common information space and assuring the quality of presented information may require additional costs.…”

Computer-supported cooperative work and groupware: an introduction to the special issues

“…Essays exploring and arguing the foundations of CSCW has been forwarded by Bannon et al (1988), Bannon and Schmidt (1989), Greif (1988), and Grudin (1991). Rather than split semantic hairs of what CSCW is or should be, Bannon et al's original pragmatism is adopted here.…”

“…Grudin (1991) lists examples of how people have drawn the line between groupware and its substrate, with some believing it starts at a very low technical level (eg a Network File Server), and others stating that it begins somewhere above electronic mail! Even the "computer supported cooperative work" label has come under fire for a variety of reasons (eg Bannon and Schmidt, 1989;Grudin, 1991). For example:…”