CSCW in Practice: an Introduction and Case Studies

This is an introduction to both the technical and human aspects of CSCW, from the perspectives of the technology, the users and the user interface. Most of the material was initially presented at meetings organized by the UK's CSCW Special Interest Group in 1991. The authors examine what has been done, or can be done, with existing technology, and discuss CSCW not as a set of technologies, but rather as a set of issues. The book is primarily about "real" CSCW, not arcane academic theories. Particular topics such as collaborative writing, conferencing, office automation, decision support, process modelling and medicine, are covered by case studies. The first three chapters provide an introduction to CSCW from three different perspectives. The next three chapters discuss, using case studies, the most researched and used area of CSCW - collaborative authoring - and propose some novel and informative "solutions" to the problems encountered. The remaining five chapters cover a broad range of CSCW applications. The final chapter describes a CSCW system that was tested, and failed, in a commercial application.