What is Collaboration Metaphor

E-collaboration amongst researchers requires not only the people working together but all the layers of a collaborative system working together as well, starting at the point where people interface with the system. Although this article concentrates more on the technical infrastructure required for e-collaboration, the influence of the social and people issues on the conceptual design of the interface and the functionalities of the collaborative system will also be discussed. Often, the interface/interaction between the ‘soft’ and the ‘hard’ issues generates some interesting and dynamic effects between the layers of the infrastructure (Dourish, 1999).