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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". 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 In software engineering, version control (also known as revision control, source control, or source code management) is a class of systems responsible for managing changes to computer programs, documents, large web sites, or other collections o ...
(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). Collaborative software is a broad concept that overlaps considerably with computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). According to Carstensen and Schmidt (1999) 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). Collaborative software relates to the notion of
collaborative work systems A collaborative working environment (CWE) supports people, such as e-professionals, in their individual and cooperative work. Research in CWE involves focusing on organizational, technical, and social issues. Background Working practices in a col ...
, 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. 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.


History

Douglas Engelbart first envisioned collaborative computing in 1951 and documented his vision in 1962, with working prototypes in full operational use by his research team by the mid-1960s, and held the first public demonstration of his work in 1968 in what is now referred to as " The Mother of All Demos." The following year, Engelbart's lab was hooked into the
ARPANET The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical foun ...
, 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 The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the ancient arms attributed to the Kingdom of Es ...
in the United Kingdom, created the game MUD (Multi-User Dungeon). The
US Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...
began using truly collaborative applications in the early 1990s. One of the first robust applications was the Navy's Common Operational Modeling, Planning and Simulation Strategy (COMPASS). 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. In 1996,
Pavel Curtis Pavel Curtis is an American software architect at Microsoft who is best known for having founded and managed '' LambdaMOO'', an online community. In the mid- to late 1980s Curtis developed and taught parts of the computer science course at th ...
, 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. The IWS product was sold to
General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Un ...
and then later to Ezenia.


Groupware

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) 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." 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. In the early 1990s the first commercial groupware products were delivered, and big companies such as
Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and ...
and IBM started using electronic meeting systems for key internal projects.
Lotus Notes HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes; see Branding below) and HCL Domino (formerly IBM Domino and Lotus Domino) are the client and server, respectively, of a collaborative client-server software platform formerly sold by IBM, now by HCL ...
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) 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.


Design and implementation

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 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. *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 Ellis is a surname of Welsh and English origin. Retrieved 21 January 2014 An independent French origin of the surname is said to derive from the phrase fleur-de-lis. Surname A *Abe Ellis (Stargate), a fictional character in the TV series '' ...
and others 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 Information overload (also known as infobesity, infoxication, information anxiety, and information explosion) is the difficulty in understanding an issue and effectively making decisions when one has too much information (TMI) about that issue, ...
. One approach for addressing these issues is the use of design patterns for groupware design. The patterns identify recurring groupware design issues and discuss design choices in a way that all stakeholders can participate in the groupware development process.


Levels of collaboration

Groupware can be divided into three categories depending on the level of
collaboration Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...
: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, , doi 10.1007/978-3-7908-2148-2_11 # Communication can be thought of as unstructured interchange of information. A phone call or an
instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...
chat discussion are examples of this. # 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. # 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

Collaborative management tools facilitate and manage group activities. Examples include: * Electronic calendars (also called
time management Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. It involves of various demands upon a person relating to work ...
software) — schedule events and automatically notify and remind group members *
Project management Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. T ...
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 Knowledge management (KM) is the collection of methods relating to creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organization. It refers to a multidisciplinary approach to achieve organisational objectives by making ...
— collect, organize, manage, and share various forms of information * Enterprise bookmarking — collaborative bookmarking engine to tag, organize, share, and search enterprise data *
Prediction market Prediction markets (also known as betting markets, information markets, decision markets, idea futures or event derivatives) are open markets where specific outcomes can be predicted using financial incentives. Essentially, they are exchange-trad ...
s — 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) * 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


Collaborative software and human interaction

The design intent of collaborative software (groupware) is to transform the way documents and
rich media Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user's actions by presenting content such as text, moving image, animation, video and audio. Since its early conception, variou ...
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. Communication technology such as telephones,
instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...
, 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

*
Collaboration technologies Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...


Closely related terms

* Computer supported cooperative work * Integrated collaboration environment


Groupware type of applications

*
Content management system A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content ( content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...
* Customer relationship management software *
Document management system A document management system (DMS) is usually a computerized system used to store, share, track and manage files or documents. Some systems include history tracking where a log of the various versions created and modified by different users is r ...
*
Enterprise content management Enterprise content management (ECM) extends the concept of content management by adding a timeline for each content item and, possibly, enforcing processes for its creation, approval and distribution. Systems using ECM generally provide a secur ...
* Event management software * Intranet


Other related type of applications

* Massively distributed collaboration * Online consultation * Online deliberation


Other related terms

* Cloud collaboration *
Collaborative innovation network Collaborative innovation is a process in which multiple players contribute towards creating new products with customers and suppliers. Collaboration can occur in all aspects of the business cycle, depending on the context: * Procurement and suppl ...
*
Commons-based peer production Commons-based peer production (CBPP) is a term coined by Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler. It describes a model of socio-economic production in which large numbers of people work cooperatively; usually over the Internet. Commons-bas ...
* Document collaboration *
Electronic business Electronic business (or "Online Business" or "e-business") is any kind of business or commercial transaction that includes sharing information across the internet. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between businesses, grou ...
*
Information technology management Information technology management or IT management is the discipline whereby all of the information technology resources of a firm are managed in accordance with its needs and priorities. Managing the responsibility within a company entails many o ...
* Management information systems *
Management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...
*
MediaWiki MediaWiki is a Free and open-source software, free and open-source wiki software. It is used on Wikipedia and almost all other Wikimedia movement, Wikimedia Website, websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata; these sit ...
* Office of the future * Operational transformation *
Organizational Memory System Organizational memory (OM) (sometimes called institutional or corporate memory) is the accumulated body of data, information, and knowledge created in the course of an organization's existence. The concept of organizational memory includes the id ...
*
Remote work Remote work, also called work from home (WFH), work from anywhere, telework, remote job, mobile work, and distance work is an employment arrangement in which employees do not commute to a central place of work, such as an office building, w ...
*
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read ref ...
* Worknet


Lists of collaborative software

*
List of collaborative software This list is divided into proprietary or free software, and open source software, with several comparison tables of different product and vendor characteristics. It also includes a section of project collaboration software, which is a standard fea ...
*
List of social bookmarking websites A social bookmarking website is a centralized online service that allows users to store and share Internet bookmarks. Such a website typically offers a blend of social and organizational tools, such as annotation, categorization, folksonomy-bas ...
* Intranet portal * Enterprise portal


References


Lockwood, A. (2008). The Project Manager's Perspective on Project Management Software Packages. Avignon, France.
Retrieved February 24, 2009.

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.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Collaborative Software Collaborative projects Business software Groupware Multimodal interaction Computer-mediated communication Social software