COMPUTER SYSTEMS SUPPORTING COOPERATIVE WORK: A CSCW '90 TRIP REPORT

ABSTRACT

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is a relatively young research field that concerns itself with issues of using computers to support working groups. The third meeting of this biannual conference, CSCW '90, held last October in Los Angeles, brought together a mix of researchers, primarily from social sciences, computer science, business, and psychology. Over 500 researchers and developers attended the conference. There were 30 papers presented in non-overlapping sessions. The papers were mostly either descriptions of group ware systems or empirical studies of human working groups. In what follows, I will give my personal highlights of the conference. My overall assessment is that while the systems presented weren't that exciting, the studies were well done and illuminated problems with current CSCW applications, giving some direction for future systems.