Abstract
For groupware to be considered successful, it must be usable and acceptable by most, if not all, members of the group. Yet the differences present between group members—their varying roles, needs, skills—and the differences between groups as a whole are a serious obstacle to achieving uniform acceptance of the groupware product, especially when the product treats all people and groups identically. This paper raises several consequences of not accommodating individual differences, and then offers a possible solution to the problem. First, instances of groupware failure are described: the inability of the group to reach a critical mass; the unequal accessibility of the groupware by participants; the failure to accommodate the different roles participants may play; the failure to balance the work done against the benefits received; and the failure of groupware to evolve with the needs of the group. Second, the notion of personalizable groupware is proposed, defined as a system whose behaviour can be altered to match the particular needs of group participants and of each group as a whole. Finally, the paper presents SHARE, a working example of personalizable groupware. SHARE is a shared screen system that offers its users a flexible choice of floor control models to help them mediate their interactions with the shared application.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Austin, L. C., Liker, J. K. and McLeod, P. L. (1990) “Determinants and patterns of control over technology in a computerized meeting room.” In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW ‘90), p39–52, Los Angeles, California, October 7–10, ACM Press.
Bair, J. H. and Gale, S. (1988) “An investigation of the Coordinator as an example of computer supported cooperative work.” Hewlett Packard Laboratories, California, Unpublished.
Bullen, C. V. and Bennett, J. L. (1990) “Learning from user experience with groupware.” In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW ‘90), Los Angeles, California, October 7–10, ACM Press.
Chang, E., Kasperski, R. and Copping, T. (1987) “Group co-ordination in participant systems.” Technical report, Department of Advanced Computing and Engineering, Alberta Research Council, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, September.
Dykstra, E.A. and Carasik, R.P. (1991) “Structure and support in cooperative environments: The Amsterdam Conversation Environment.” In S. Greenberg (ed.):Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Groupware, Academic Press, London. Originally published in Int J Man Machine Studies, 34(3), March.
Engelbart, D. and English, W. (1968) “A research center for augmenting human intellect.” In Proceedings of the Fall Joint Computing Conference. Montvale, NY, Fall, AFIPS Press.
Farallon (1988) “Timbuktu user’s guide.” Manual, Farallon Computing Inc., Berkely, California,
Fish, R. S. (1989) “Cruiser: A multi-media system for social browsing.” The ACM SIGGRAPH Video Review Supplement to Computer Graphics, 45(6). ACM Press, Baltimore, MD. Videotape.
Foster, G. and Stefik, M. (1986) “Cognoter: Theory and practice of a Colab-orative tool.” In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW ‘86), p7–15,
Austin, Texas, December 3–5, ACM Press.
Garcia-Luna-Aceves, J.J., Craighill, E.J. and Lang, R. (1988) “An open-systems model for computer-supported collaboration.” In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Workstations, p40–51, March.
Garfinkel, D., Gust, P., Lemon, M. and Lowder, S. (1989) “The SharedX multi-user interface user’s guide, version 2.0.” Research report STL-TM-89-07, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, California, March.
Greenberg, S. (1990) “Sharing views and interactions with single-user applications.” In COIS ‘90: Proceedings of the Conference on Office Information Systems, Boston, April.
Greenberg, S. and Bohnet, R. (1991) “GroupSketch: A multi-user sketchpad for geographically-distributed small groups.” In Proceedings of Graphics Interface VI, Calgary, Alberta, June 5–7. Also available as Reseach report 90/414/38, Dept of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Greenberg, S. and Witten, I. H. (1985) “Adaptive personalized interfaces -- a question of viability.” Behaviour and Information Technology, 4(1), pp. 31–45, January.
Group Technologies (1991) “Aspects: The first simultaneous conference software for the Macintosh, Version 1.” Manual, Group Technologies Inc, Arlington, Virginia.
Grudin, J. (1988) “Why CSCW applications fail: Problems in the design and evaluation of organizational interfaces.” In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, pp. 85–93, Portland, Oregon, September 26–28, ACM Press.
Johansen, R. (1989) “User approaches to computer-supported teams.” In M.H. Olson (ed.): Technological Support for Work Group Collaborations, p1-32, Hillsdale, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Johnson-Lenz, P. and Johnson-Lenz, T. (1991) “Post-mechanistic groupware primitives: Rhythms, boundaries and containers.” In S. Greenberg (ed.): Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Groupware, Academic Press, London. Originally published in Int J Man Machine Studies, 34(3), March.
Lauwers, J. C. (1990) “Collaboration transparency in desktop teleconferencing environments.” PhD Thesis, Available as Technical Report CSL-TR-90-435, Stanford University, Computer Systems Laboratory, Stanford, CA, July.
Lauwers, J. C. and Lantz, K. A. (1990) “Collaboration awareness in support of collaboration transparency: Requirements for the next generation of shared window systems.” In Proceedings of the ACMISIGCHI Conference on Human factors in Computing, Seattle, April, ACM Press.
Lauwers, J. C, Joseph, T. A., Lantz, K. A. and Romanow, A. L. (1990) “Replicated architectures for shared window systems: A critique.” In Proceedings of the Conference on Office Information Systems, p249–260, Boston, April 25–27.
Leland, M. D. P., Fish, R. S. and Kraut, R. E. (1988) “Collaborative document production using Quilt.” In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, p. 206–215, Portland, Oregon, September 26–28, ACM Press.
Lia, K.-Y. and Malone, T. W. (1988) “Object Lens: A ‘spreadsheet’ for cooperative work.” In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, p. 115–124, Portland, Oregon, September 26–28, ACM Press.
Malone, T. W., Grant, K. R., Lai, K.-Y., Rao, R. and Rosenblitt, D. (1987) “Semi-structured messages are surprisingly useful for computer-supported coordination.” ACM Trans Office Information Systems, 5(2), pl 15–131, April.
Mantei, M. (1988) “Capturing the Capture concepts: A case study in the design of computer-supported meeting Environments.” In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, 257–270, Portland, Oregon, September 26–28, ACM Press.
Markus, M. L. and Connolly, T. (1990) “Why CSCW applications fail: Problems in the adoption of interdependent work tools.” In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW’90), Los Angeles, California, October 7–10, ACM Press.
Root, W. R. (1988) “Design of a multi-media vehicle for social browsing.” In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, p. 25–38, Portland, Oregon, September 26–28, ACM Press.
Sarin, S. and Greif, I, (1985) “Computer based real-time conferencing systems.” IEEE Computer, 18(10), p33–45.
Stefik, M., Bobrow, D.G., Foster, G., Lanning, S. and Tatar, D. (1987) “WYSIWIS revised: Early experiences with multiuser interfaces.” ACM Trans Office Information Systems, 5(2), 147–167, April.
Tang, J. C. (1991) “Findings from observational studies of collaborative work.” In S. Greenberg (ed.): Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Groupware, Academic Press, London. Originally published in Int J Man Machine Studies, 34(2), February.
Tatar, D. G., Foster, G. and Bobrow, D. G. (1991) “Design for conversation: Lessons from Cognoter.” In S. Greenberg (ed.): Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Groupware, Academic Press, London. Originally published in Int J Man Machine Studies, 34(2), February.
Thimbleby, H. (1980) “Dialogue determination.” Int J Man Machine Studies, 13.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Greenberg, S. (1991). Personalizable groupware: Accommodating individual roles and group differences. In: Bannon, L., Robinson, M., Schmidt, K. (eds) Proceedings of the Second European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work ECSCW ’91. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3506-1_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3506-1_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-1439-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-3506-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive