Collaborative software

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Collaborative software, also known as groupware, is application software that integrates work on a single project by several concurrent users at separated workstations (see also computer supported cooperative work). In its modern form, it was pioneered by Lotus Software with the popular Lotus Notes application running in connection with a Lotus Domino server; some historians argue that groupware was anticipated by earlier monolithic systems such as NLS. The wiki software, upon which Wikipedia runs, evolved from a free software philosophy for similar collaborative applications—without the trade limitations of proprietary software or the social limitation of a hierarchy.

Software becomes more valuable when more people use it and thus Metcalfe's law applies. For example, calendaring becomes more useful when more people are connected to the same electronic calendar and choose to keep their individual calendars up-to-date.

The more general term social software applies to systems used outside the workplace, for instance, online dating services and social networks like Friendster. The study of computer-supported collaboration includes study of the software and social phenomena associated with it. These are covered in different articles.

Contents

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Overview

Collaboration, with respect to information technology, seems to have many 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; conversational interaction, transactional interaction, and collaborative interaction:

Conversational interaction is an exchange of information between two or many 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. Communication technology such as telephones, instant messaging, 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. The transaction entity is in a relatively stable form and constrains or defines the new relationship. One participant exchanges money for goods and becomes a customer. Transactional interactions are most effectively handled by transactional systems that manage state and commit records for persistent storage.

In collaborative interactions the main function of the participants' relationship is to alter a collaboration entity (i.e., the converse of transactional). The collaboration entity is in a relatively unstable form. Examples include the development of an idea, the creation of a design, the achievement of a shared goal. Therefore, real collaboration technologies deliver the functionality for many participants to augment a common deliverable. Record or document management, threaded discussions, audit history, and other mechanisms designed to capture the efforts of many into a managed content environment are typical of collaboration technologies.

An extension of groupware is collaborative media, software that allows several concurrent users to create and manage information in a website. Collaborative media models include wiki and Slashdot models. Some sites with publicly accessible content based on collaborative software are: WikiWikiWeb, Wikipedia and Everything2.

By method used we can divide them in:

  • Web-based collaborative tools ( for example : free tool : www.jhatak.com )
  • Software collaborative tools

By area served we can divide them in:

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Three levels of collaboration

Groupware can be divided into three categories depending on the level of collaboration—communication tools, conferencing tools and collaborative management (Co-ordination) tools.

  • Electronic communication tools send messages, files, data, or documents between people and hence facilitate the sharing of information. Examples include:
  • Electronic conferencing tools also facilitate the sharing of information, but in a more interactive way. Examples include:
  • Collaborative management tools facilitate and manage group activities. Examples include:
    • electronic calendars (also called time management software) — schedule events and automatically notify and remind group members
    • project management systems — schedule, track, and chart the steps in a project as it is being completed
    • workflow systems — collaborative management of tasks and documents within a knowledge-based business process
    • knowledge management systems — collect, organize, manage, and share various forms of information
    • extranet systems (sometimes also known as 'project extranets') — collect, organize, manage and share information associated with the delivery of a project (eg: the construction of a building)
    • social software systems — organize social relations of groups

Collaborative software can be either web based (such as UseModWiki or Scoop), or desktop systems (such as CVS or RCS).

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Implementation

The biggest hurdle in implementing groupware is convincing people to use it. Training is required to make people comfortable using it, and if people don't feel comfortable with the software, they won't use it. Employees should be given incentives to contribute: the rewards could be either financial or psychological.

In many cases collaboration is at odds with the company's corporate culture so implementation will be disruptive. Shifting a corporate culture from being competitive to being cooperative is no small undertaking. It will require changes at all levels of the organization, including the CEO.

One of the biggest hurdles is the typical large enterprise desire to standardise knowledge practice across that enterprise and to implement tools and processes which support that aim. Much greater value and quicker implementation can be achieved by avoidance of the "one size fits all" meme. Driving people to adopt the same active role (for example: contribution measured by number of uploads) only produces the behaviour driven by the metric - "the game exists of the rules by which it is played". Cultivate the practice of collaboration where it flourishes of its own volition to gain the quickest return.

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Voting methods

Voting has many uses in collaboration software. Condorcet voting offers input from multiple experts or perspectives and can resolve intransitivity problems in decision making. In recommendation systems, rating or voting on many items can be used to formulate profiles for highly successful recommendations; and in document collaboration, such as Wikipedia, voting methods help to guide the creation of new pages.

Use of voting to order lists of sections such as this one remains largely unexplored. This also pertains to collective intelligence.

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See also

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External links

de:Groupware es:Groupware fr:Groupware ko:협업 소프트웨어 nl:Groupware ja:グループウェア no:Gruppevare ru:Groupware tl:Tulungang software zh:群件 it:Groupware

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