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ABSTRACT

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is one of the newer hot topics in the computer world. CSCW is also known as Collaborative Computing, and CSCW applications are known as `Groupware' or `Group Decision Support Systems' (GDSS). The marketplace is just beginning to be subjected to a flood of CSCW applications. It requires no prescience to predict that most of this groupware will fail; as the papers covered in this article demonstrate, there are a lot of uniquely hard problems associated with CSCW that are only just beginning to be understood, let alone solved. Just as one industry wag noted that `the year of the LAN lasted from 1983 through 1988,' it seems likely that any `year of groupware' will be good for another five or ten years.

REFERENCES

• 1: Jonathan Grudin, Why CSCW applications fail: problems in the design and evaluation of organization of organizational interfaces, Proceedings of the 1988 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work, p.85-93, September 26-28, 1988, Portland, Oregon, United States [doi>10.1145/62266.62273]
• 2: Terry Winograd, Where the action is, BYTE, v.13 n.13, p.256-258, Dec. 1988
• 3: Tamar Bermann , Kari Thoresen, Can networks make an organization?, Proceedings of the 1988 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work, p.153-166, September 26-28, 1988, Portland, Oregon, United States [doi>10.1145/62266.62279]
• 4: fr4. Y. Engstrom, R . Engstrom & M. D. Saarelma, Computerized Medical Records, Production Pressure, and Compartmentalization in the Work Activity of Health Center Physicians. Ibid, pages 65-83.
• 5: fr5. Charlotte Linde, Who's in Charge Here?: Cooperative Work and Authority Negotiation in Police Helicopter Missions. Ibid. pages 52-63.
• 6: fr6. M. S. Poole, M. Homes and G. DeSanctis, Conflict Management and Group Decision Support Systems. Ibid. pages 227-243.
• 7: fr7. J. C. Tang and L. J. Leifer, A Framework for Understanding the Workspace Activity of Design Teams. Ibid, pages 244-249.
• 8: fr8. S. A. Bly, A Use of Drawing Surfaces in Different Collaborative Settings. Ibid, pages 250-256.
• 9: fr9. R. W. Root, Design of a Multi-Media Vehicle for Social Browsing. Ibid, 25-38.
• 10: fr10. M. Mantei, Capturing the Capture Lab Concepts: A Case Study in the Design of Computer Supported Meeting Environments. Ibid. pages 257-270.