Abstract
In fragmented work settings like network organizations or virtual organizations, monolithic approaches to implement support for collaboration would require the actors involved to agree on the usage of the approach or tool under consideration. As the autonomy of actors in these settings makes this hard to achieve, we suggest an exploration and an increase in the end-user tailorability of basic software infrastructures to enable even actors in theses settings to tailor their collaboration support to their needs. An example for this strategy is illustrated by using email as a basic groupware technology. We use server-based email filters to improve the coordination of work processes and increase group awareness in these settings, and focus on making it easy for end users to understand and tailor the technology according to their needs. We use and enhance concepts from the discussion on the "tailorability" of CSCW systems (a visual filter composition language, a component-based architecture and additional support for exploration and documentation) to implement and evaluate our prototype.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Camino, B.M., Milewski, A.E., Millen, D.R., Smith, T.M.: Replying to email with structured responses. Int. Journal on Human-Computer Studies 48, 763–776 (1998)
Caroll, J.M.: Five Gambits for the advisory Interfacs Dilemma. In: Frese, M., Ulich, E., Dzida, W. (eds.) Psychological Issues of Human Computer Interaction in the Work Place, Amsterdam, pp. 257–274 (1987)
Dourish, P.: Software Infrastructures. In: Beaudouin-Lafon, M. (ed.) Computer Supported Co-operative Work, pp. 195–219. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (1999)
Dourish, P.: The Appropriation of Interactive Technologies: Some Lessons from Placeless Documents. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) - The Journal of Collaborative Computing 12(4), 465–490 (2003)
Dourish, P., Edwards, W.K.: A tale of two toolkits: Relating Infrastructure and Use in Flexible CSCW Toolkits. Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 9(1), 33–51 (2000)
Gruen, D., Rohall, S.L., Minassian, S., Kerr, B., Moody, P., Stachel, B., Wattenberg, M., Wilcox, E.: Lessons from the reMail prototypes. In: Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, Chicago, Illinois, USA, pp. 152–161. ACM Press, New York (2004)
Hampton, C.A.: Getting Started With Procmail (8.1.2002), http://www.spambouncer.org/proctut.shtml
Hanseth, O., Lundberg, N.: Designing Work Oriented Infrastructures. Computer Supported Cooperative Work: The Journal of Collaborative Computing 10(3-4), 347–372 (2001)
Henderson, A., Kyng, M.: There’s No Place Like Home. Continuing Design in Use. In: Design at Work, pp. 219–240. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Mahwah (1991)
Lieberman, H., Paternó, F., Wulf, V. (eds.): End User Development. Kluwer, Dordrecht (in press)
Mackay, W.E.: Users and customizable Software: A Co-Adaptive Phenomenon. MIT, Boston, MA, PhD Thesis (1990)
MacLean, A., Carter, K., Lövstrand, L., Moran, T.: User-tailorable Systems: Pressing the Issue with Buttons. In: Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI 1990), Seattle, Washington, April 1-5, pp. 175–182. ACM-Press, New York (1990)
Malone, T.W., Grant, K.R., Lai, K.-Y., Rao, R., Rosenblitt, D.: Semistructured Messages are Surprisingly Useful for Computer-Supported Coordination. In: Proceedings of CSCW 1988, pp. 311–334. Morgan-Kaufmann, San Francisco (1988)
Malone, T.W., Lai, K.-Y., Fry, C.: Experiments with Oval: A Radically Tailorable Tool for Cooperative Work. In: Int. Conference on CSCW (CSCW 1992), Toronto, Canada, pp. 289–297. ACM Press, New York (1992)
Morch, A., Stevens, G., Won, M., Klann, M., Dittrich, Y., Wulf, V.: Component-based technologies for end-user development. Communications of the ACM 47(9), 59–62 (2004)
Mowshowitz, A.: Virtual Organization. Communications of the ACM 40(9), 30–37 (1997)
Nardi, B.A.: A Small Matter of Programming - Perspectives on end-user computing. MIT-Press, Cambridge (1993)
Nielsen, J.: Evaluating the Thinking-Aloud Technique for Use by Computer Scientits. In: Hortson, H.R., Hix, D. (eds.) Advances in Human Computer Interaction, vol. 3, pp. 69–82 (1992); Nielsen, J.: Usability Engineering. AP Professional, New York (1993)
Oppermann, R., Simm, H.: Adaptability: User-Initiated Individualization. In: Oppermann, R. (ed.) Adaptive User Support – Ergonomic Design of Manually and Automatically Adaptable Software. Lawrence Erlbaum Ass., Hillsdale (1994)
Paul, H.: Exploratives Agieren. Peter Lang, Frankfurt/M, Germany (1994)
Picot, A., Reichwald, R., Wigant, R.: Die grenzenlose Unternehmung - Information, Organisation und Management 3. Aufl., Wiesbaden, Germany, Gabler (1998)
Pipek, V.: From Tailoring to Appropriation Support: Negotiating Groupware Usage, Faculty of Science. Department of Information Processing Science (Acta Universitatis Ouluensis A 430), University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland, 246 p. (2005)
Pipek, V., Kahler, H.: Supporting Collaborative Tailoring. In: Lieberman, H., Paterno, F., Wulf, V. (eds.) End-User Development. Kluwer, Dordrecht (2005) (to be published)
Sandor, O., Bogdan, C., Bowers, J.: Aether: An Awareness Engine For CSCW. In: 5th European Conf. on CSCW (ECSCW 1997), pp. 221–236. Kluwer, Dordrecht (1997)
Sutcliffe, A., Mehandjiev, N.: Special Issue on End-user development: tools that empower users to create their own software solutions. Communications of the ACM 47(9) (2004)
Rittenbruch, M., Kahler, H., Cremers, A.B.: Supporting cooperation in a virtual organization. In: Proceedings of the international conference on Information systems, Helsinki, Finland. Association for Information Systems, pp. 30–38 (1998)
Stiemerling, O.: Component-based tailorability, Ph.D.-Thesis, Institute for Computer Science III, University of Bonn, Germany (2000)
Stiemerling, O., Cremers, A.B.: The EVOLVE Project: Component-Based Tailorability for CSCW Applications. AI & Society 14, 120–141 (2000)
Törpel, B., Pipek, V., Rittenbruch, M.: Creating Heterogeneity - Evolving Use of Groupware in a Network of Freelancers. Special Issue of the Int. Journal on CSCW on Evolving Use of Groupware 12(4), 381–409
Wulf, V.: Let’s see your Search-Tool! – On the Collaborative Use of Tailored Artifacts. In: Proceedings of Group 1999, pp. 50–60. ACM Press, New York (1999)
Wulf, V., Golombek, B.: Direct Activation: A Concept to Encourage Tailoring Activities. Behaviour & Information Technology 20(4), 249–263 (2001)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Pipek, V., Won, M., Englert, R., Wulf, V. (2005). Tailoring Infrastructures: Supporting Cooperative Work with Configurable Email Filters. In: Fukś, H., Lukosch, S., Salgado, A.C. (eds) Groupware: Design, Implementation, and Use. CRIWG 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3706. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11560296_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11560296_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-29110-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32002-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)