Putting it all together: Requirements for a CSCW platform

This chapter examines the requirements for a computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). CSCW systems have generally failed to meet the requirements of users in actual cooperative work settings. They do not adequately support fluent transitions between formal and informal interaction and the inextricable interweaving of individual and cooperative work that characterizes everyday work practice.

CSCW facilities should be categorized in terms of requirements rather than the characteristics of the medium. The degree and nature of interdependence among the members of the cooperating ensemble as determined by the field of work. The dimensions of cooperative work can be translated into requirements for the techniques of communication in terms of bandwidth and turnaround time.

The membership of cooperative ensembles is not stable and often even nondeterminable. The pattern of interaction in cooperative work changes dynamically with the requirements and constraints of a situation. As opposed to CSCW facilities that merely or primarily provide a channel of communication, CSCW facilities that incorporate a mechanism of interaction can be seen as a distinct category of applications in the sense that they are semantically biased.

These are genuine CSCW applications.