Advanced technologies and systems for collaboration and computer supported cooperative work

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Abstract

The recent developments in web technologies, pervasive and ubiquitous systems and networks, cloud and highly distributed computing systems, and the availability of massive amounts of data have changed the field of computer supported collaboration, particularly with the emergence of new capabilities and forms of collaboration both locally and remotely. These developments and capabilities present new challenges and issues as well. The purpose of this special issue on Advanced Technologies and Systems for Collaboration and Computer Supported Cooperative Work is to discuss cutting-edge research in the field of collaboration technologies and systems. The core contributions in this special issue are based on substantially extended versions of the most relevant manuscripts of the 2016 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS 2016). In this editorial, we also provide some observations from the last 10 years of CTS conferences in order to identify the major research areas covered by the papers that have been presented. The highlights and comments are presented in a chronological order and from a comparative perspective, along with a discussion of several research trends which may shape up the next decade in this important subject matter.

Introduction

The recent developments of web technologies, pervasive and ubiquitous systems and networks, highly distributed computing systems, and the availability of massive amounts of data as well as AI-powered systems and autonomous machines (e.g., vehicles, robots, botnets) have significantly changed and enabled the emergence of new capabilities and forms of collaboration. This has not only challenged pre-existing theories and practices but has provided a plethora of new understandings on how individuals work and play together. These developments have fundamentally altered the field of computer supported collaboration and have raised a myriad new challenges and issues pertaining both to the theoretical and applied aspects of computer supported collaborations [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6].

The rapid advances, discoveries and innovations call for intensified continued R&D efforts in CTS related interdisciplinary areas. In light of the above, this special issue (SI) titled “Advanced Technologies and Systems for Collaboration and Computer Supported Cooperative Work” of the Future Generation Computer Systems Journal (FGCS) presents a number of contemporary research articles that explore different aspects of current collaboration technologies and systems. The articles in this special issue are based primarily on a selected set of substantially extended manuscripts of the most relevant contributions from the 2016 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS 2016) which was held in Orlando, Florida, October 31–November 04, 2016. Yet, the special issue includes accepted articles that came in as a result of the open call for papers that was publicized as well.

The CTS conference originated from a workshop on the subject in 1999 in Oakland, Michigan, USA. Its main aims are: (1) to bring together researchers, scientists, engineers, practitioners, educators, and students from many nations and backgrounds to share and exchange their insights, breakthroughs, and research results about various aspects of collaboration systems and their technologies; (2) to discuss potential synergies and challenges encountered in government, industry and academe; and (3) to seek new and innovative solutions for the anticipated future challenges and developments.

CTS 2016 represented the 17th annual meeting and took place on October 31–November 04, 2016 in Orlando, Florida, USA. Under the theme of “Collaboration for the 21st Century,” CTS 2016 focused on a wide range of the state-of-the-art as well as emerging topics pertaining to cooperation, coordination, communication and collaboration. Continuing the success of previous editions, CTS 2016 attracted a large number of high-quality submissions and stimulated cutting-edge research discussions among many pioneering researchers and scientists as well as industry engineers and leaders from all around the world. The full CTS 2016 conference proceedings can be found at the IEEE Xplore Digital Library [7].

This special issue received a total of 27 manuscripts. With the help of the esteemed reviewing Committee members, these articles underwent an extensive review process. The process included 3 full review cycles, each with 3 to 5 external reviewers assigned per paper. Additionally, the guest editors assessed each paper independently. The guest editors and reviewers worked together to provide authors with constructive feedback to improve and further develop their manuscripts. After the thorough reviewing process, 9 articles met our standards and consensus. The manuscripts comprise diverse content in many respects. A particular strength of the articles in this SI is that each one adopts a disparate set of theoretical and empirical lenses across a wide range of themes. Collectively, they represent a variety of research methodologies, studies and experiments in a breadth of research settings. This makes them retain unique contributions to the collaboration systems and technologies field and, in doing so, advances this important area of inquiry.

In this editorial, we discuss the CTS conferences and relate some of their objectives and contributions. By analyzing 865 Scopus indexed articles that have been presented over the past 10 years at the CTS conferences, we highlight the evolution of the computer supported collaboration field and illustrate the richness of this growing domain of collaboration systems and technologies. We also present brief summaries of the Special Issue enclosed contributions and subject matter. Lastly, we suggest areas where further research and development are needed and offer a vision of future research directions.

Section snippets

CTS highlights over the past ten years

CTS conferences have always covered a broad multidisciplinary spectrum of methodologies and technologies related to communication, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration, both at the client and back-end (infrastructure) levels. They also promoted the investigations of using these technologies and systems in various existing and newly emerging application domains such as healthcare, emergency/disaster management, e-learning, autonomous systems and robotics.

It is worthwhile in this

Overview of the special issue

This special issue was originally conceived at CTS 2016 to feature extended submissions based on the conference technical program committee recommendations. The topics of these papers ranged from highly technical to highly ethnographic works exploring human and socio-technical collaboration issues. Further, in order to provide a wider overview of the current research in collaboration related topics, an open Call for Papers was publicly announced and disseminated. The open Call for Papers aimed

Some future trends in collaboration systems and technologies

The goal of this special issue is to examine a range of methodologies and technologies that relate to communication, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration by bringing in some recent contributions related to these subjects. In light of the investigations discussed by the selected papers, there exists a large variety of solutions, approaches and strategies where collaboration is exploited to support particular domain-specific tasks [50], [51], [52], [53]. Generally speaking, collaboration

Acknowledgments

The guest editors would like to thank the Editor-in-Chief of FGCS and the staff at Elsevier for their support during the management of this Special Issue. We also wish to thank all the reviewers (listed below) for their commitment during the review process and for their critical and useful comments that helped the authors in improving their manuscripts. Lastly, we wish to thank all the authors who responded to this special issue call and contributed their manuscripts.

The Special Issue reviewers

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