Groupware and Team Aware

Abstract

A well-known drawback of groupware systems is that they focus on technical aspects and neglect social aspects of technology use. Designers simply implement the functionality they deem useful for cooperation without integrating the seemingly minor and irrelevant aspects of everyday work (Sohlenkamp, 1998). Collective awareness is one of these neglected aspects. Historically, collective awareness is a concept associated with Emile Durkheim (1858–1917), referring to the common norms, values, and beliefs shared by members of a community. It consists of beliefs and ideas that shape the structure and direction of community life, rather than just the personal interactions of individuals. In the last decade, awareness support in multiuser applications becomes an increasingly important and accepted topic both in human-computer interaction and computer-supported cooperative work research (Dourish & Bellotti, 1992; Gutwin & Greenberg, 1996; Sohlenkamp, 1998; Carroll, Neale, Isenhour, Rosson, & McCrickard, 2003). Recently, management information systems researchers focused on human and organizational aspects of collective awareness rather than to the technical aspects. While computer science studies tried to solve technical problems related to providing awareness through the man–machine interfaces, management information systems studies tried to identify the factors affecting the maintenance and the evolution of collective awareness from an organizational viewpoint (Barker, 1991; Daassi & Favier, 2004; Weisband, 2002).