WWW: Beyond the Basics

4. Collaboration

4.3. Classes of Collaboration

Collaboration is impacted by the roles that participants assume. Different kinds of roles and relationships will inherently induce different forms of collaboration. For example, the collaboration between a teacher and a student is much different than that between a salesperson and a customer.

Over the WWW, a multitude of roles and relationships exist. Some of the most common relationships are:

Looking at the roles and relationships defined above, we may categorize them along general classes of collaboration that occur over the WWW. Worker-worker and manager-worker relationships identify types of collaboration occurring in professional work. Student-student and student-teacher relationships occur in education and training. Hobbyist-hobbyist, friend-friend, and courter-courted relationships occur in entertainment and social activities. Salesperson-customer and consumer-consumer relationships occur in commerce.

The four collaboration classes that have emerged are professional work, education and training, entertainment and social activities, and commerce. As exemplified by the differing roles and relationships, these four classes represent distinctive forms of collaboration with unique goals, roles, relationships, interactions, requirements, and demands.

4.3.1. Professional Work

The most common application of collaborative technology is to support group activities in professional work. Various commercial companies such as Lotus Development Corporation (Lotus, 1996a) and Oracle Corporation (Oracle, 1996) are in the business of developing corporate groupware solutions. Unfortunately, the WWW is slow in being recognized and realized as a viable delivery vehicle for groupware applications. Consequently, the amount of collaboration over the WWW in support of professional work is currently quite limited.

Nevertheless, Netscape Communications Corporation (Netscape, 1996e) is pushing forward with a Web-based groupware suite known as Suitespot (Netscape, 1996c). As the availability of professional groupware increases over the WWW, corporations may find the WWW to be a reasonable alternative to proprietary groupware suites that execute outside of the WWW.

With the increasing capabilities and capacity of the WWW to support collaboration, many existing professional groupware tools will eventually migrate onto the WWW. Of course, some high-bandwidth groupware tools cannot fully migrate until the Internet is able to sustain greater bandwidths. Nevertheless, lower-bandwidth, professional groupware tools are already finding their way onto the WWW today. We examine five different classes of Web-based groupware applications that professionals use to collaborate on their work. These five classes are meetings and conferences, collaborative writing, collaborative research, remote equipment operation / remote data collection and analysis, and project management.

4.3.1.1. Meetings and Conferences

A large portion of the typical workday of a professional is spent in meetings. Meetings inherently portray collaborative activities as workers discuss issues, organize activities, and make decisions. WWW support for meetings may allow workers to hold and conduct meetings in the convenience of their individual offices. The minimum requirements for supporting virtual meetings is a multi-way communications channel and possibly a shared document system for distributing information. Examples of Web-based meeting and conferencing applications include:

4.3.1.2. Collaborative Writing

A typical product of most office-based occupations is a written document or report. Often, such documents are collaboratively developed by a group of writers. When developing a physical report, writers often have difficulties in partitioning the work since they must share a single, physical document. Collaboration is often asynchronous as writers take turns developing and editing the shared document. This is a case where groupware may provide significant benefit. Collaborative writing tools will allow writers to simultaneously work on different portions of the same document and/or to review and critique the written works of others. Writers are no longer restricted by the physical limitations of the shared document. Examples of Web-based collaborative writing tools include:

4.3.1.3. Collaborative Research

Time and distance often impede scientists and researchers from participating in joint research efforts. The WWW potentially offers a pervasive medium that will allow researchers at different locations to collaborate on research activities. From sharing results to jointly running experiments, the WWW currently offers or will soon offer the communications and shared application tools that researchers need to conduct research from geographically-dispersed sites. An example of a collaborative research effort is:

4.3.1.4. Remote Equipment Operation / Remote Data Collection and Analysis

Video teleconferencing on the WWW may be applied to support the collaborative, remote operation of physical equipment. Collaboration may occur in various forms. One possible collaboration would be between an operator at a remote site and a technician at the location of the equipment. The operator would remotely view the equipment and direct the technician in its operation. Another possible form of collaboration would have multiple operators at remote sites. The operators would collaborate to jointly operate the shared equipment. In many cases, the purpose of operating remote equipment is to collect data. Thus, collaboration may also occur in the form of shared data collection and analysis. An example of collaborative remote equipment operation and shared data collection and analysis is:

4.3.1.5. Project Management

Managing a project is a collaborative endeavor among a manager and his/her staff members. In any management situation, the manager ultimately controls the work and makes the crucial decisions. Good managers, however, elicit and consider input and feedback from his/her staff members. A manager and his/her staff members collaborate along the roles of a supervisor and his/her subordinates. Project management tools aim to facilitate these kinds of interaction.

Collectively, the manager and staff members must negotiate tasks and deadlines, organize activities and work, and evaluate progress. Commercial project management software such as Microsoft Project (Microsoft, 1996b) allow managers to develop PERT charts, Gantt charts, and schedules to organize work. Most commercial project management systems, however, are not generally accessible by staff members. By providing project management support over the WWW, both manager and staff members are better able to function in their respective roles and to contribute to the organization and management of the project.

4.3.2. Education and Training

The potential for the WWW to serve as an information and collaboration infrastructure for education and training is tremendous (see Chapter 6). Large educational research projects such as the Networked Infrastructure for Education (NSF, 1996) program and the Collaborative Visualization (Northwestern, 1996) project are looking closely at the WWW as an effective means towards delivering educational content and materials. Collaboration skills are important for students to obtain - particularly in science fields where students commonly perform experiments in working groups. We examine six different forms of education and training in which WWW users collaborate. These are lectures and presentations, situated experience, expert advice, collaborative simulations, collaborative writing, and academic expositions and fairs.

4.3.2.1. Lectures and Presentations

In today's classroom, the most common teaching style is didactic teaching. The goal of didactic teaching is to transfer knowledge from the teacher to the student. The teacher acts as the keeper and disseminator of knowledge while the student acts as the assimilator of knowledge. Under this traditional form of pedagogy, the teacher typically gives lectures to relay and reinforce concepts and facts. The student learns by listening and absorbing information. Although the role of the student appears somewhat passive in didactic teaching, communications does flow in both directions between the teacher and student. For example, the teacher may call on students to give answers to questions. Alternatively, students may seek clarification from the teacher by asking questions of their own. A number of Web-based applications have been developed to support this kind of lecture style approach. Examples of such Web-based applications include:

4.3.2.2. Situated Experience

In contrast to didactic teaching, some educators believe that students learn best when they are engaged in activity. Rather than sitting passively and listening to a lecture, the student should learn by doing. Student engagement and hands-on experience represent the basis of a pedagogical approach known as "active learning." Web-based applications may support collaborative active learning by providing students a shared, situated experience. Collectively, students, teachers, and professionals may collaborate to experience a unique, once-in-a-lifetime encounter (e.g., solar eclipse, appearance of comet) or to relive a past historical event. Students are engaged in the activity since they take part as participants in the authentic or simulated experience. Examples of Web-based situated experience applications include:

4.3.2.3. Expert Advice

Didactic and active learning represent teaching approaches that promote continuous, long-term learning. In some instances of education and training, students may need shorter-term collaboration to seek specific information or advice. In such cases, the collaboration is often just a one-time occurrence. Examples of Web-based applications that are designed to provide professional or expert advice include:

4.3.2.4. Collaborative Simulations

A computer-based simulation is one kind of educational tool that teachers employ to teach specific concepts and lessons. Most commercially-available simulations are not inherently collaborative. Students cannot manipulate the same simulation from different computers. The main drawback of such stand-alone simulations is that students fail to experience group interactions and to develop collaborative skills typically associated with more traditional learning activities such as with physical group experiments. Since the development of social and group skills are a vital part of a student's education and evolution, we desire collaborative simulations that allow students to practice and reinforce these collaborative skills. Examples of research projects that aim to study and develop collaborative simulations include:

4.3.2.5. Collaborating Writing

Students working in groups are often required to collaborate on the composition of a group report. When developing a written report, students often have difficulties in partitioning the work since they must share a single, physical document. Often, one student will develop the entire report while the other group members direct or observe. Unfortunately, some students will become disengaged because they do not actively participate in the writing. As a result, students may not develop comparable writing skills.

Collaborative writing is an area where groupware may provide significant benefit. Collaborative writing tools will allow students to simultaneously work on different portions of the same document and/or to review and critique the written works of others. Students are no longer restricted by the physical limitations of the shared document.

Various software systems are available for collaborative writing over the WWW. For examples of Web-based, collaborative writing sytems, see Section 4.3.1.2.

4.3.2.6. Academic Expositions and Fairs

Academic fairs and expositions provide a unique form of collaboration among students, teachers, and parents. In this collaboration, students develop and display their work for others to see, teachers review, evaluate, and judge students' contributions, and parents keep abreast of the academic efforts and progress of their children. Collaboration is inherently asynchronous since students must develop the work first before teachers may judge students' contributions, and teachers typically evaluate and award prizes before the student contributions are made available to parents.

On the WWW, some virtual academic fairs and expositions have been held. Often, student contributions at these fairs take advantage of the capabilities of the WWW and are delivered as multimedia presentations. Virtual fairs may additionally be supported by review systems that allow teachers to evaluate and comment on student contributions, and MUDs and MOOs that allow teachers and parents to navigate among the student presentations. An example of a Web-based academic fair is:

4.3.3. Entertainment and Social Activities

Collaboration for the purpose of entertainment and/or social activity is probably the most popular form of collaboration occurring over the WWW. According to a WWW user survey (Georgia Tech, 1996), a majority of users access the WWW from home rather than school or work. Thus, users typically access the WWW during their hours of free time. We examine five different forms of entertainment and social activities in which WWW users collaborate. These are social forums, games and roleplaying, entertainment reviews, sports and hobbies, and artistic and literary pursuits.

4.3.3.1. Social Forums

Many Web sites are organized as social forums where users come to meet and converse with others. Collaboration occurs not to perform group work but rather to establish and develop personal relationships with other users. Some interaction appears in the form of flirting or courting among users of the opposite sex. Most often, interaction occurs in the form of friendly conversation.

Today, most social interaction on the WWW occurs over text-based IRC channels. The use of strictly text-based communications eliminates many of the social barriers that are present in face-to-face interaction (Belson, 1994). The anonymity of text-based communications draws many introverts into social interactions and situations (Livingood, 1995).

MUDs and MOOs are particularly well-suited to support social functions. Players move from room to room looking for good conversation or move to more private rooms to hold more personal dialogues. Examples of Web-based social forums include:

4.3.3.2. Games and Roleplaying

Some WWW users collaborate to play games. Like video games, multiple players may compete against each other or work together to score the highest number of points. In either case, players must collaborate to set up and execute the shared game. Compared to home video and personal computer games, games played over the WWW are far less interactive. Developing interactive Web-based games is difficult because current WWW technology is generally stateless, provides minimal graphics, and supports a low level of interactivity. Nevertheless, as Internet bandwidth increases and WWW technology further evolves, we will likely see an explosion in the number and kinds of interactive games available over the WWW. Examples of current Web-based, interactive games include:

Other less resource-demanding forms of gameplaying such as Multi-User Simulated Environments (MUSEs) are available on the WWW. MUSEs are thematic MUDs in which players act out fictitious characters that live on virtual, fantasy worlds. Commonly, a MUSE virtual world is derived from the setting of a book, movie, or television series. Examples of Web-based MUSES include:

4.3.3.3. Entertainment Reviews

WWW users often collaborate to share opinions and reviews of various forms of entertainment such as movies, music, books, and dining. Some entertainment Web sites are dedicated as repositories or databases from which WWW critics may add and edit review information. Reviews are then accessed by other WWW users who may be looking for a video to rent, a compact disc to buy, a book to read, a restaurant at which to dine, or information for some other entertainment activity. The collaboration among WWW users is essentially one of information pooling and sharing. Examples of Web-based entertainment review systems include:

4.3.3.4. Sports and Hobbies

Sports and hobbies are also popular topics of collaboration over the WWW. Sports fanatics collaborate to hold discussions over sports events, teams, and players. Conversations appear in various forms. For example, sports fanatics may root for their favorite teams, agitate the supporters of rival teams, debate over who are the best players and coaches, and compare team and player statistics. Reflecting the competitive nature of sports, discussions among sports fanatics tend to have competitive overtones.

Unlike sports fanatics, hobbyists collaborate towards more constructive ends. Hobbyists enter into discussions to provide and gather advice on their hobbies. Collaboration is more cooperative than competitive. Hobbyists collaborate to better their own individual knowledge and abilities.

The most common collaboration framework for sports and hobbies is a newsgroup or discussion group. Prior to the WWW, Usenet provided numerous newsgroups representing a large variety of sports and hobbies. These Usenet newsgroups are also available through the WWW today. Alternatively, IRC lines are also becoming a popular medium for discussing sports and hobbies. IRC lines allow the discussion to be more spontaneous and dynamic, but users have more difficulties in following a line of discussion or finding and gathering all related information on an ongoing topic. Examples of Web-based sports and hobby discussion groups are:

4.3.3.5. Artistic and Literary Pursuits

The computer is a modern medium for artistic and literary expression. Forms of computer art and literature are still largely experimental as the computer art and literature culture has yet to fully take shape. Nevertheless, many writers and artists are employing the WWW as a way to expose their talents to others and to collaborate on joint artistic and literary ventures. A number of Web sites are dedicated to collaborative artistic and/or literary pursuits. Through these Web sites, WWW writers and artists collaborate to develop computer-based stories, music, and art. In another mode of collaboration, writers and artists display their works in virtual anthologies and galleries for others to see. Art and literary critics then visit these virtual sites to browse and critique the work. Examples of collaborative art and literature Web sites include:

4.3.4. Commerce

One area that has great potential for an explosion on the WWW is commerce (see Chapter 8). Many efforts are underway towards establishing the WWW as a medium for buying and selling services and products. The emergence of security and encryption mechanisms (see Chapter 18) make the WWW a viable and safe medium for performing business transactions. In this section, we examine four different forms of Web-based applications that salespeople and customers employ to conduct business transactions. These are purchases, reservations and appointments, expositions and conventions, and advertisements.

4.3.4.1. Purchases

The most common form of a business transaction over the WWW is the purchase of a product or service. In most cases, the purchase is a physical product that is delivered to the home of the customer. In other cases, the purchase is an electronic product or service that may be downloaded to the customer's computer. Common forms of electronic products or services include computer software, electronic documents, and subscription services to Internet magazines. The most common form of payment is through credit cards although a number of Internet payment systems are actively being researched (see Chapter 8).

The typical collaboration that occurs is one between a customer who makes a purchase and a purchasing agent who eventually retrieves and processes the order. The collaboration is inherently asynchronous. In more automated systems, the purchasing agent may be replaced with a direct link to an order database which processes and stores orders. Examples of Web-based purchasing applications include:

4.3.4.2. Reservations and Appointments

Another form of a collaborative business transaction is a Web-based reservation system. Travellers employ such systems to make travel accommodations. Typical events or accommodations that may be reserved include airline reservations, car rentals, and hotel reservations.

The typical collaboration that occurs is one between a traveller who makes a reservation and a reservation clerk who eventually retrieves and documents the reservation. The collaboration is inherently asynchronous. In more automated systems, the reservation clerk may be replaced with a direct link to a reservation database which processes and stores reservations. Examples of Web-based reservation systems include:

4.3.4.3. Expositions and Conventions

Expositions and conventions are events where salespeople and companies display their wares. Customers attend expositions to gain exposure to a diverse range of products. By having convenient access to competing products, customers may easily compare product features. Similarly, virtual expositions and conventions on the WWW serve these same purposes. Web-based expositions and conventions, however, are only collaborative if salespeople and customers directly interact. Examples of Web-based expositions include:

4.3.4.4. Advertisements

Commercial advertisements are common on the WWW today. Many Web page publishers recoup their publishing costs by selling advertisement space to other companies. Typically, an advertisement is comprised of a banner image promoting a product or service. The image is usually linked to another site which has more extensive information on the product and company. Although Web-based advertising represents a somewhat impoverished level of interaction between a potential customer and a company, an advertisement may be a precursor to more extensive collaboration if it attracts interest and users initiate further contact with the company to obtain additional information or to purchase a product.

[PREV][NEXT][UP][HOME][VT CS]

Copyright © 1996 George Chin Jr., All Rights Reserved

George Chin Jr. <chin@csgrad.cs.vt.edu>
Last modified: Tue Dec 10 16:00:00 1996