Towards open CSCW systems

Abstract

Applications designed to support the work of groups is becoming increasingly important to future distributed systems. This paper considers the role of distributed systems within the development of cooperative systems. In particular, the authors focus on the need to provide open CSCW systems and their impact on distributed systems. The work currently being undertaken in open distributed systems (ODP) is used to highlight significant trends for future open CSCW systems. It is shown that the CSCW and ODP community share mutual interests and have complementary aims and goals developed from different perspectives. Within the paper the authors provide a brief introduction to CSCW highlighting the requirements CSCW places on distributed systems. The development of an environment to support open CSCW systems is introduced and briefly described. Finally, the relationships between requirements and models for open CSCW systems and the basic reference model of ODP are discussed.<>