Elsevier

Computer Communications

Volume 17, Issue 11, November 1994, Pages 777-787
Computer Communications

Research
TeamBuilder: a CSCW tool for identifying expertise and team formation

https://doi.org/10.1016/0140-3664(94)90062-0Get rights and content

Abstract

Tasks have to be increasingly solved by teams whose members reside at remote locations. The management of crises is a typical task that poses a need for the spontaneous identification of expertise and subsequent cooperation between individuals and teams. Support for the formation of teams is a central aspect, which has been neglected by cooperative-work systems, labelled as groupware, until now. Most of today's systems are primarily aimed at groups that have already been formed. This paper presents a groupware system called TeamBuilder aimed at supporting team formation. TeamBuilder is being developed and tested as part of the research on CSCW at the Institut für Informatik und Gesellschaft (IIG), Telematics Department, at Freiburg University. The paper is structured to give an overview of the basic infrastructure, architecture, concepts and work with TeamBuilder. The fundamental need identified is for a decentralized environment building upon the worldwide computer networking infrastructure which emphasizes information sharing and offers a spectrum of communication media. Information is kept by many individuals, building a pool of decentralized information sources. The intended benefit of the proposed decentralized infrastructure is the fostering of the participation of many individuals and organizations in information sharing by seamless transitions between individual and cooperative work at the user interface and networking level.

References (50)

  • A Patel

    Information services: an overview

    Comput. Commun.

    (March 1993)
  • B Smetaniuk

    Distributed operation of the X.500 Directory

    Comput. Networks & ISDN Syst.

    (1991)
  • J Lederberg et al.

    Towards a National Collaboratory

  • CA Ellis et al.

    Groupware: some issues and experiences

    Commun. ACM

    (January 1991)
  • R Kling

    Cooperation, coordination and control in computer-supported work

    Commun. ACM

    (December 1991)
  • J Conklin

    Hypertext: An introduction and survey

    Computer

    (September 1987)
  • FG Halasz

    Reflections on notecards: seven issues for the next generation of hypermedia systems

    Commun. ACM

    (July 1988)
  • R Bogaschewsky

    Hypertext/Hypermedia Systeme — Ein Überblick

    Informatik Specktrum

    (June 1992)
  • D Cartwright et al.

    Group Dynamics: Research and Theory

  • RB Cattel

    New concepts of measuring leadership in terms of group syntality

    Human Relations

    (1951)
  • R Johansen

    Leading Business Teams

    (1991)
  • A Karduck

    TeamBuilder — Ein System zur computergestützten Teambildung

  • H Ishii

    Integration of inter-personal space and shared workspace: ClearBoard design and experiments

  • J Rosenberg et al.

    Multimedia communications for users

    IEEE Commun. Mag.

    (May 1992)
  • G Müller

    Strategic Directions towards Multimedia Systems

    (1992)
  • G Müller

    Current trends in distributed systems

  • RG Herrtwich et al.

    Towards Integrated Multimedia Systems: Why and How?

    (1991)
  • R Steinmetz et al.

    Modelling distributed multimedia applications

  • W Lamersdorf

    Data-intensive applications in open networks: extending the modelling, programming and communication support

  • CJ Robbins et al.

    The ISO Development Environment: User's Manual, Volume 5: QUIPU

    (July 1991)
  • L Navarro et al.

    CSCW requires open systems

  • PARADISE, International Report: Piloting an International Directory Service

    (November 1992)
  • W Prinz et al.

    Relevance of the X.500 Directory to CSCW applications

  • Information Processing Systems — Open Systems Interconnection — The Directory

    (1988)
  • PM Irish et al.

    Supporting collaboration in hypermedia: issues and experiences

    J. Am. Soc. Infor. Sci.

    (May 1989)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text