The State-of-the-art of CSCW: CSCW Systems, cooperative work and organization

Abstract

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is a young research field, no more than ten years old, concerned with the development and use of computer systems to support cooperative working. Although researchers and practitioners in this area have many interests in common, there is a great deal of diversity in definitions of and approaches to CSCW. This diversity has arisen despite the clarity of intention of the early seminal papers that attempted to set the agenda for CSCW research. Ten years into the development of this research area, a number of tensions appear to be diluting this initial clarity. These tensions reveal themselves in apparent disjunctions between theoretical papers and statements of intent on the one hand and CSCW practice (research and design) on the other. In this paper a review of the state-of-the-art of CSCW is offered. Some existing systems, and related design and evaluation research, are described. Then three sources of the aforementioned tension are explored: the role of technology in driving or being derived from the science; conceptions of working and cooperative working in particular; and the relationship between CSCW and organization.