Working with Groupware : Understanding and Evaluating Collaboration Technology

Groupware is a technology designed to help people working in groups to communicate their ideas more easily. While traditional technologies such as the telephone qualify as groupware, the term is usually used to refer to a specific class of technologies that rely on modern computer networks, such as email, newsgroups and videophones. In order to design groupware technologies it is important to understand how people behave within groups, their requirements, and their knowledge of the systems being created for them. This book provides an introduction to groupware, reviews the current applications and analyses their potential.