Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!faqserv From: groupware@arch.ping.dk (Groupware FAQ) Newsgroups: comp.groupware,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: comp.groupware FAQ: Posting guidelines for Comp.groupware Supersedes: Followup-To: comp.groupware Date: 11 Jun 1997 12:21:58 GMT Organization: University of Copenhagen Lines: 839 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Expires: 3 Jul 1997 12:21:42 GMT Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu Summary: Guidelines for posting to the Usenet newsgroup comp.groupware. Keywords: CSCW, orgware, group, interactive, shared, environments X-Last-Updated: 1995/08/08 Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.groupware:10090 comp.answers:26471 news.answers:104685 Archive-name: comp-groupware-faq/guidelines Posting-Frequency: weekly Last-modified: 1995.8.8 Version: 2.9.1 Copyright: 1990 - 1995 (C) David S. Stodolsky, PhD This is the Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) list for comp.groupware. ==================================================================== Please read carefully: Any article posted to comp.groupware uses a MINIMUM of TEN hours of readers' time. Do not post responses to ABUSIVE or INAPPROPRIATE articles. See (2h) in the FAQ List. Do not post TEST messages to comp.groupware (see question 2f below). LOTUS-NOTES specific material goes to comp.groupware.lotus-notes.misc. Crosspost or post Lotus Notes related material to comp.groupware only if the post is also of interest to users of other types of groupware. If a follow-up you post is also of interest to Lotus Notes users add comp.groupware.lotus-notes.misc to the Newsgroups (and Follow-ups To) header. Before asking for HELP, read at least this part of the FAQ List. Send an e-mail message to rre-request@weber.ucsd.edu with the subject "archive send getting-help" (no quotes) and read "The art of getting help" to avoid embarrassment and improve your chances of receiving useful feedback. Information for TEACHERS is given under the question on class activity (1d). All posts to comp.groupware are archived and PUBLICLY accessible. Do not post anything you would not want a (future) employer to read. This FAQ list may be cited as: Stodolsky, David S. (1995). Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) List for comp.groupware. _Comp.groupware_ [Usenet]. (Available by anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu in the directory pub/usenet/news.answers/comp- groupware-faq.) The latest version of this document can also be accessed by sending an e-mail message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with "help" and "index" in the body on separate lines. John Faughnan writes: The correct URL (and it's great) is: http://www.cis.ohio- state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/comp-groupware-faq/top.html This article is posted automatically every 8 days to introduce the group to new users. This FAQ list is intended to cut down on the number of "Frequently Asked Questions" posted to comp.groupware. **** TABLE OF CONTENTS: **** ============================ 1a) What is comp.groupware? 1b) How many people read comp.groupware? 1c) Should I post if I am not a "groupware professional"? 1d) Should comp.groupware be used as a class activity? 1e) What do I do if an e-mail reply to an author fails? 1f) How do I get information about a specific book or product? 1g) How do I post long articles? 1h) What if I don't follow the guidelines for posting to comp.groupware? 2a) What should I do before posting to comp.groupware? 2b) How do I ask a question? 2c) How do I get the answer to a question someone else posted? 2d) What should I use as a subject for my post? 2e) Why should I bother with Subject, Summary, and Keyword headers? 2f) How do I post test messages? 2g) What is the best way to post a follow-up message? 2h) What should I do about inappropriate articles? 3a) Can more than one person use an account name for posting? 3b) What is the best way to sign an article? 4a) What is the proper setting for my distribution header? 4b) What if my distribution is restricted? 4c) How can I post if I have read-only access to comp.groupware? 4d) Can I get comp.groupware by e-mail? 5) What is groupware? 6a) Where is comp.groupware archived? 6b) What is FTP? ***What is needed to improve comp.groupware? ***How do I post copyrighted work? ***This document's copyright. ***What is the easiest way to read this FAQ? ***Additions. ***Corrections, comments, and suggestions. Additional contents information may be found in other parts of the FAQ list. 1a) What is comp.groupware? =========================== Comp.groupware is a Usenet conference for professional level discussion of groupware. A conferencing system is a type of groupware application, and this part of the FAQ list suggests how to use this newsgroup most effectively. Please help demonstrate the effective use of a newsgroup by reading this part completely before posting. 1b) How many people read comp.groupware? ---------------------------------------- Comp.groupware is read by over 40,000 people (Brian Reid posts readership statistics at the beginning of each month to the newsgroup news.lists). 1c) Should I post if I am not a "groupware professional"? --------------------------------------------------------- Consider the cost to readers of any post. If even an obviously inappropriate article is distributed, one that just takes readers a few seconds to scan, and then skip or kill, the total time used is still large. With 36,000 readers, a post that takes an average of 1 second for each reader to deal with (i. e., examining the subject line) means a total of ten hours used (36,000 seconds / 3,600 seconds/hour = 10 hours). If the article uses up an average of four seconds, then the total time expenditure is 40 hours, the equivalent of a work week. This is probably the minimum time expenditure on any article that is even selected for scanning. So, if you spend a week preparing an article and then post it to comp.groupware, there will be a balance between your time investment and that used by readers, even if they only scan your article and make no response. The lack of a separate feedback channel is an unfortunate deficiency in the Network News system as it is currently structured. The above analysis should not discourage anyone from posting a simple question to comp.groupware. Some of the most interesting and valuable exchanges in comp.groupware have resulted from such questions. However, authors must not make such requests unnecessarily. On the other hand, a carefully prepared article or a report of an extensive project may not receive any comment at all. This could mean that the article is clear and error free. It could also mean it was not of sufficient interest to anyone to be read in detail. What can be assumed is that it was seriously considered. This is a result of the currently low traffic level in comp.groupware and high quality of articles posted. Please read this FAQ list completely so you can help maintain the high quality of this group. Many people have to pay for their news feed *by the byte*. Be considerate, be brief, and *think* before you post. 1d) Should comp.groupware be used as a class activity? ------------------------------------------------------ Teachers should not make use of comp.groupware a class activity. If a class is made aware of comp.groupware, this FAQ list should be made required reading, so inappropriate use is minimized. Instructional use of the news system is best practised in a local newsgroup established for that purpose. This also permits establishment of a better environment for instructional purposes. See the article "Protecting expression in teleconferencing: Pseudonym-based peer review journals" {Stodolsky, D. S. (1990). _Canadian Journal of Educational Communication_, 19, 41-51. ([1989, May 9]. _Communication Research and Theory Network [CRTNET]_, No. 175 [Semi-final draft available by electronic mail from LISTSERV@PSUVM.BITNET at University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Speech Communication and COMSERVE@Vm.ecs.rpi.edu at Troy, NY: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Department of Language, Literature, and Communication.])} This article also available in compressed format as file "prot.express.tele" on ftp.EU.net in ~documents/authors/Stodolsky. Retrieve and examine the file by typing, for example (characters before and including ":" or ">" indicate machine's prompting for input): > ftp ftp.EU.net login:ftp password: ftp> bin ftp> cd documents/authors/Stodolsky ftp> get prot.express.tele.Z ftp> bye > uncompress prot.express.tele.Z > view prot.express.tele URL: ftp://ftp.eu.net/documents/authors/Stodolsky/prot.express.tele.Z 1e) What do I do if an e-mail reply to an author fails? ------------------------------------------------------- If your e-mail reply to an author fails, try again using information in the signature lines. A directory information server can be consulted to find a person's e-mail address. Read the informational article, "How to find people's e-mail addresses" (in the newsgroup "news.answers"), so you know to contact the postmaster at the site of the person you are trying to reach, and so on. Do not post a reply until you have tried to reach the author by telephone, facsimile, or paper mail. If these fail, ask yourself if getting the reply through is worth ten hours of readers' time. If so, post the message. Do not post a message asking a person to send you an e-mail address, unless your letter must be kept private (If this is true, consider using encryption). If it is not of general interest, use only the person's name as the subject (e.g., "To: Foo Bar"). If other readers might find it interesting, also give full subject information. 1f) How do I get information about a specific book or product? -------------------------------------------------------------- Do not broadcast requests for information you can obtain from a known source. Requests such as, "What are the contents of book Foo published by Bar" are not appropriate. This information can normally be obtained by a short telephone call and a few minutes of work by someone being paid to provide that service. Let's not deprive someone of a job and at the same time get comp.groupware readers fired because they are wasting all their time reading unnecessary articles :-). 1g) How do I post long articles? -------------------------------- Post long articles as a single unit if they are less than 30,000 characters. Otherwise, post separate sections as follow-ups to the first, breaking at meaningful places. This permits the sections to be treated as a single unit, thus minimizing expenditure of attention on the article. The cost of transmitting articles is negligible, so long posts that take one second to delete "cost" the same as short ones. 1h) What if I don't follow the guidelines for posting to comp.groupware? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Disregarding the guidelines or a lack of self discipline in following them will result in defensive attention management. That is, certain authors will not be read at all by many readers or valuable discussions will take place by e-mail instead of being posted. This would have the unfortunate effect of fractionating the joint awareness that permits the comp.groupware readership to function as a group. Thus, it is recommended that authors who prefer entertainment to rigor in their news reading, post to other newsgroups. Inexperienced users who, for example, post replies instead of using e-mail to reach an author are typically labelled "Newbies" and not taken very seriously. Make sure you know how to use your newsreading program well enough to avoid this mistake. Continuing abuse results in the person being regarded as inconsiderate. Most newsreading software permits you to enter names of such persons in a "kill" file, thus automatically suppressing display of their posts. This is one mechanism for defensive attention management. When many inappropriate posts appear in a group, people unsubscribe and authors loose their potential audience. Typically, it is the more professional people unsubscribe first. The group then becomes much less useful, even for new people with simple questions. 2a) What should I do before posting to comp.groupware? ====================================================== New readers would be wise to examine the archives to get an idea of type of articles normally posted to comp.groupware. Notice which articles are responded to and which are ignored (see archive information). Read "Welcome to news.newusers.questions" in that newsgroup before posting for the first time. This helps to avoid common mistakes and inadvertent abusive behavior that can cause your articles to be ignored. Be careful which keys you hit when reading news -- you could be posting a follow-up instead of replying directly to the author. Authors should refer to "Guidelines for posting on Usenet" in the newsgroup "news.announce.newusers" to make sure they know to spell check their articles, etc. "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions", "Introduction to news.announce", "Hints on writing style for Usenet" available in the same newsgroup also contain information for new users. 2b) How do I ask a question? ---------------------------- If you ask a question, your subject line should include "question", "query", "(Q)" or should end with a "?". Questions should clearly explain your problem and surrounding issues. Otherwise, you will simply waste the time of those who want to help you. Tell people the kind of work you are doing or contemplating doing. This helps them provide the information you need. Indicate what efforts, if any, you have made thus far, and what information was found. Indicate that you will summarize and post the information you receive, and only do so if you receive useful information. Do not post saying you did not receive any useful information. 2c) How do I get the answer to a question someone else posted? -------------------------------------------------------------- If that person did not indicate they would post the information they received, send mail asking for a summary. If enough people ask, the author will likely post the summary. Never post a follow-up to an article saying only that you are also interested in the answer to their question. 2d) What should I use as a subject for my post? ----------------------------------------------- Always use your Subject line to state the *topic* of your article as completely as possible (e.g., "Macintosh II voice-mail based real-time meeting software ready.", rather than "Meeting software"). Summary lines should indicate *what* your message says about the topic (e.g., "New meeting coordination software available via anonymous FTP"). Statements should always end with periods, questions with question marks (typically), and high energy, high impact declarations with exclamation points. These rules makes articles much easier for recipients to handle appropriately. 2e) Why should I bother with Subject, Summary, and Keyword headers? ------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject, Summary, and Keyword headers are scanned by many news reading programs, thus permitting readers to find your article easily. You will have your articles read more often if you select these carefully. 2f) How do I post test messages? -------------------------------- Do not post test messages to comp.groupware. There are special groups for testing. And tests should be as limited in their distribution as possible. This is basic information from "Guidelines for posting on Usenet". Posting of test messages inappropriately is considered abusive and will cause a loss of readership for your articles. 2g) What is the best way to post a follow-up message? ----------------------------------------------------- When you reply to a message, do not change the subject line or redirect follow-ups (unless you are changing the subject). Such changes make it harder for some news readers to follow the threads in a discussion. Include a "Summary" line which indicates specifically what your message says. This permits your article to be found even if it is a follow-up to an article with poorly chosen subject and keyword information. If a follow-up you post is also of interest to users of other newsgroups, add them to the Newsgroups (and Follow-ups To) header. Similarly, if these headers include newsgroups you are sure would not be interested in your follow-up, remove them from the headers. Never post a "me too" message or one that says you "agree" or "disagree" with the original post. Use e-mail for this type of response. Posted articles should contain information of interest to all readers, not just the original author. 2h) What should I do about inappropriate articles? -------------------------------------------------- Please, do not post responses to articles you feel are inappropriate or abusive. (If you can not resist, consider alt.flame as an alternative newsgroup for your article [it has greater readership than comp.groupware]). If the author is not saying anything worth reading, enter the name in your "kill" file, and then no more of your time will be wasted by that person. If you feel that the author is saying something worth reading, but in an inappropriate way, respond by mail. Tell the author what you think is incorrect about the article. If possible, suggest how to accomplish the objective in an appropriate way (e. g., post to another newsgroup). If you have responded to a person by mail a few times without the desired effect, and you feel that the group as a whole could benefit by a solution to the problem, only then should you post an article. The nature of your article should be a suggestion, if possible, of how such problems can be avoided in the future. 3a) Can more than one person use an account name for posting? ============================================================= Each name should have one and only one user. If an article is a joint product, indicate this at the beginning and end of the article. Some news reading programs allow certain names to be to be automatically selected. Help the reader by using the same name at all times. This will improve the chances that people will read your articles. 3b) What is the best way to sign an article? -------------------------------------------- The signature should include complete name, address, and telephone number (this allows quick verification in case forgery is suspected). E-mail addresses ought to be included in the signature in case headers get munged. Another nice feature is geographical coordinates, so the time zone can be determined (useful in telephoning). The signature should be limited to four lines as is suggested practice on Usenet. 4a) What is the proper setting for my distribution header? ========================================================== Set your distribution to world by leaving the "Distribution" header blank. Comp.groupware is delivered to all continents. Do not limit your chances for feedback by restricting distribution. Restricted distribution can cause confusion when people read responses to articles they have not seen. If you notice an article has a restricted distribution, inform the poster by mail. 4b) What if my distribution is restricted? ------------------------------------------ If you are restricted from posting to "world" by your administrator, request a change in your privileges, at least for this newsgroup. If refused, determine what your rights are in terms of appeal, based upon information available at your site. An alternative is to use the Net to find information and persons to contact concerning your rights. Try the newsgroups: comp.org.eff.news comp.org.eff.talk misc.legal.computing alt.society.civil-liberty alt.comp.acad-freedom.news alt.society.cu-digest Information about the rights of network users is available from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Information about the Electronic Frontier Foundation can be requested from eff@eff.org. You can also retrieve information about EFF and its projects via anonymous FTP from ftp.eff.org. As a final resort, send a summary of your case to: Electronic Frontier Foundation 155 Second Street Cambridge, MA 02141, USA Tel.: +1 (617) 864-0665 Fax: +1 (617) 864-0866 URL: mailto: ask@eff.org 4c) How can I post if I have read only access to comp.groupware? ---------------------------------------------------------------- If you can send e-mail off-site, you can post using a Usenet-news mail server. E-mail to "comp-groupware@cs.utexas.edu" is posted with the subject line of your letter becoming the subject line of the article. (Note: "." in the newsgroup name is written as "-".) This allows you to post to a newsgroup even if you have read-only access to Network News. Other servers that use the normal period "." in the group name are: group.name.usenet@decwrl.dec.com group.name@news.demon.co.uk group.name@news.cs.indiana.edu E-mail to "comp.groupware@anon.penet.fi" will post your article anonymously (but see the information on using a single user name and signing your articles). Send a message to "help@anon.penet.fi" for more information on this service. 4d) Can I get comp.groupware by mail? ------------------------------------- You may be able to arrange this with a local administrator, but there is no central mailing list maintainer. There is a Group Support Systems List you can subscribe to by sending mail to LISTSERV@uga.cc.uga.edu with the message "SUBSCRIBE GSS-L ". 5) What is groupware? ===================== Groupware is software and hardware for shared interactive environments. The term "environment" includes software and hardware that sets the context for interaction. Hardware can include specially designed furnishings and architectural spaces that are considered integral to correct utilization of a given software application. A groupware application may require a specific organizational environment to function as expected. More powerful applications can adapt to, or overcome limitations of, their environments. The term "interactive" is used to indicate that time constraints are managed by the system. Many groupware applications appear to support real-time interaction. Others merely enforce deadlines that can span weeks. In either case, the technical limitations on the pace of interaction are made (to appear) negligible in terms of the objectives of the application. Systems that exclude reference to real time are not groupware applications. The term "shared" indicates that two or more participants interact with one another in such a manner that each person influences and is influenced by each other person. No upper limit in the number of participants is indicated, because mediated groups, as opposed to natural ones, can maintain joint awareness with very large numbers of persons. (Joint awareness is one way that "group" is defined.) An objective of some groupware applications is to increase the number of persons that can interact "as a group". Some definitions of groupware include the notion of a common goal. While all systems require some agreement among participants (at minimum that they should be jointly used), interactions can be predominately conflictual. Management of conflict is often a crucial feature of a groupware system. Vote collecting systems are an example. Definitions: ------------ Group - Two or more persons who are interacting with one another in such a manner that each person influences and is influenced by each other person (Shaw, M. E. _Group dynamics: The psychology of small group behaviour_. 1976, p. 11). Ware - 1 a) manufactured articles, products of art or craft.... b) an article of merchandise.... 3) an intangible item (as a service) that is a marketable commodity. (_Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary_, 1976, p. 1319). Related terms: CMC -> Computer Mediated Communication CSCW -> Computer Supported Cooperative Work EIS -> Executive Information Systems EMS -> Electronic Meeting Systems ESS -> Executive Support Systems GCSS -> Group Communication Support Systems GDSS -> Group Decision Support Systems GSS -> Group Support Systems Orgware Origin of the term "Groupware" ------------------------------ Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz coined the term `Groupware' in 1978, they defined it as a whole system `of intentional group processes plus supporting software'. Software meant to help group interaction ---------------------------------------- In Quarterman's (, John. S. [1990]. The matrix: Computer networks and conferencing systems worldwide. Bedford, MA: Digital Press) discussion of conferencing systems history and future (pp. 155- 156), groupware is placed under the "Mature, 1990-1995" period: "There also seems to be increasing emphasis on _groupware_ -- i.e., software meant to help group interaction (refs deleted). This is a rather general term and is used to refer to anything from electronic mail to distributed databases that facilitates groups working together (ref deleted). In other words, it includes both CMC and resource sharing. Perhaps this is a sign of eventual better communication between the conferencing and networking communities." In his first substantive chapter, Quarterman (1990, p. 12) presents an overview of the area that categorizes services along a resource sharing versus CMC dimension (the other dimension is batch vs interactive). Thus, according to his analysis, groupware, is a concept uniting the different technologies for supporting group work. It makes sense that the as the area matures, the focus will move from technologies to the services they support, since this is what is important to the users. This analysis suggests that groupware will play an increasingly important role. Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) ------------------------------------------ CSCW takes as its starting point the fact that many of the working activities we take part in are collective. Its focus on the work environment makes it a subset of groupware, as does its focus on cooperation (often expressed as a common task or goal). However, some CSCW application are outside the scope of groupware, in that the environment they create is not totally "shared." For instance, an enterprise wide workflow management system may compartmentalize the environment of a unit so it is not directly shared with other work units. Similarly, interactivity may be weaker in CSCW than in groupware. For instance, e-mail is considered to be CSCW below, while it may not qualify as groupware given the above definition. However, Kling sees CSCW to include products (groupware) and a related social movement. -------------- Cooperation and Control in Computer Supported Work Rob Kling Information and Computer Science University of California, Irvine, Ca 92717 714-856-5955 Draft 3.0 April 19, 1991 Sidebar for an article in a special issue of Communications of the ACM devoted to CSCW. "Cooperation, Coodination and Control in Computer Supported Work." Communications of the ACM 34(12)(Dec, 1991):83-88. A. The Technologies for Computer Supported Cooperative Work The term "CSCW" was publicly launched in 1986 as the title of a conference jointly sponsored by Xerox-PARC and MCC. Like other important computing terms, such as artificial intelligence, it was coined as a galvanizing catch-phrase, and later given more substance through a lively stream of research. A community of interest formed around the research programs and conferences identified with the term and advanced prototype systems, studies of their use, key theories, and debates about them. CSCW is best characterized as an arena rather than a "field" since most of the active participants maintain primary identities in other fields, such as human-computer interaction, information systems, and social impact studies. Even though most CSCW researchers participate in multiple research communities, CSCW offers special excitement: it is a term in the making and a way of conceiving of fundamentally new possibilities of computer support for work. CSCW denotes at least two kinds of things: special products (groupware), and a movement by computer scientists who want to provide better computer support for people, primarily professionals, to enhance the ease of collaborating. The earliest groupware focussed on products which were enriched forms of electronic mail or systems to help people schedule meetings more efficiently by having access to their colleagues' calendar. But the CSCW movement (Kling & Iacono, 1988) has rapidly advanced new technological visions. Today, a group of professionals can use sophisticated text processors, graphics displays, spreadsheets and other analytical programs, and software development systems, to develop software or a complex report on workstations in their private offices. However, if they hold a meeting to discuss their work, their underlying technological support is much weaker. When they walk into a typical seminar room, they leave their computers behind. They pick up ruled pads and meet in rooms which provide, perhaps, whiteboards and and overhead projectors. If two or more group members wish to discuss documents or programs, they also have to meet face to face in one of their offices if they want to use their best computer tools. Today's computer tools are designed for one person's work at a time. Even shared systems like electronic mail or databases, are based on models of one user at a time accessing certain information. Some computer scientists feel that the speed and ease of intellectual teamwork would be enhanced if computerized systems could provide seamless platforms for people to use their best computerized tools regardless of the their locations (Ishii and Miyake, this issue). These applications would enable people to have the electronic equivalents of shared blackboards and notepads, with all the capabilities added by computer storage, retrieval, and manipulation, in their private offices and in their meeting rooms. Some system designers have gone further after noting that communication limited to telephone and computer is relatively low bandwidth. They have enhanced their shared computer systems with two-way interactive video channels so that participants could see each other or documents on each others' desks. Other CSCW researchers are interested in providing special software to make meetings more effective. These special systems help brainstorm, organize agendas, and provide computational support for group decision making strategies. Schrage's (1990) vivid book title, Shared Minds, captures some of the underlying sensibility, (although "sharing" misses the concerns for privacy of information in some systems). The slogans of this computer-based social movement help distinguish it from other movements: "cooperative work," "shared minds," "seamless systems," "collaborative systems," "intellectual teamwork" resonate with positive social imagery. Further, the computer scientists who build CSCW systems often focus on the fine grained organization of features, the design of interfaces, and the way that people could actually use their systems (see for example, Ellis, 1990; Kyng, this issue). There is an intimate quality to these concerns, with a focus on the practical activity of groups. Kyng (this issue), for example, coins the term "mutual learning" to denote a relationship of professional parity between system designers and system users. One of the striking features of the CSCW literature is the way that designers try to be respect the ways that people actually organize and use information. There is significant attention to the pragmatics of communication and information handling -- as in concerns over whether people prefer to point by hand or with a mouse. These concerns lead to "usability" being a preeminent concern of CSCW application designers. In the past five years, participants in the CSCW movement has produced numerous prototypes and a few commercial systems. The prototypes have served as platforms for interesting technological experiments and for some systematic behavioral studies of how people can work while using these new systems (Kraemer and Pinsonneault, 1990). But many groupware applications have not taken off commercially. Much depends upon how one counts "groupware applications." Electronic mail has arguably been the most successful application, and the CSCW movement would have no unarguable successes if participants did not include electronic mail (Ellis, et. al., 1991). On the other hand, group calendaring systems, which are part of several widely adopted commercial "office automation" systems, are rarely used (Bullen and Bennett, 1991). But CSCW researchers' ambitions reach far beyond the boundaries of communication with discrete messages. Many CSCW system advocates would like to transform the way that people work. After all, why invest time and money in new technologies, if they don't produce magnificent effects? [...] D. References 1. Bullen, Christine and John Bennett. 1991."Groupware in Practice: An Interpretation of Work Experiences." in Charles Dunlop & Rob Kling (Eds.) Computerization and Controversy: Value Conflicts and Social Choices. Boston, Academic Press. 2. Burgess-Yakemovic, K.C. and E. Jeffrey Conklin. 1990. Report on a Development Project Use of an Issue based Information System. CSCW'90 Proceedings. (Oct.) pp. 105-118. 3. Dunlop, Charles and Rob Kling. 1991. "The Dreams of Technological Utopianism" pp. 14-30 in Charles Dunlop & Rob Kling (Eds.) Computerization and Controversy: Value Conflicts and Social Choices. Boston, Academic Press. 4. Ellis, Clarence, S.J. Gibbs, and G.L. Rein. 1991. Groupware: Some Issues and Experiences. CACM 34(1)(Jan):38-58 5. Grudin, Jonathan. 1989. "Why Groupware Applications Fail: problems in design and evaluation." Office: Technology and People, 4:3, pp. 245-264. 6. Ishii, Hiroshi and Naomi Miyake. TeamWorkStation. An Open Shared Workspace. CACM This issue. 7. Kling, R. 1987. "Defining the Boundaries of Computing Across Complex Organizations. in Critical Issues in Information Systems, R. Boland and R. Hirschheim (eds.). John-Wiley. 8. Kling, R. "Computerization and Social Transformations" Science, Technology and Human Values. 16 (in press). 9. Kling, R. and S. Iacono. 1988. "The Mobilization of Support for Computerization: The Role of Computerization Movements" Social Problems, 35(3)(June):226-243. 10. Krasner, Herb, Bill Curtis, and Neil Iscoe. 1987. "Communication Breakdowns and Boundary Spanning Activities on large Programming Projects." in Empirical Studies of Programmers: Second Workshop Gary Olson, Sylvia Sheppard & Elliot Soloway (Ed.) Norwood, NJ: Ablex Pub Co. 11. Kyng, Morton "Designing for Cooperation" CACM This issue. 12. Kraemer, Kenneth L. and Alain Pinsonneault. 1990. "Technology and Groups: Assessments of Empirical Research" in Galegher, Jolene, Robert Kraut, and Carmen Egido (Ed.)Intellectual Teamwork: Social and Intellectual Foundations of Cooperative Work. Erlbaum. 13. Perin, Constance. Electronic Social Fields in Bureaucracies. CACM This issue. 14. Schrage, Michael. 1990. Shared Minds: New Technologies of Collaboration. New York, Random House. 6a) Where is comp.groupware archived? ===================================== Archives of comp.groupware from 92.10.6 to 93.4 are available by anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol) from: avs.ncsc.org in the directory: ~newsgroups/comp.groupware The archives are in mail folders named MONTH_YEAR. For example, to peruse all of the postings in the month of October, you could download the archive Oct_92, and execute % Mail -f Oct_92 Some more recent articles can be FTPed from gorm.ruc.dk. They are numbered sequentially in the directory: ~groupware/art/comp/groupware 6b) What is FTP? ---------------- FTP is a way of copying files between networked computers. If you need help in using or getting started with FTP, send e-mail to: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with: send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq in the body to find out how to do FTP. Those without FTP access should send e-mail to: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with: send usenet/news.answers/finding-sources in the body to find out how to do FTP by e-mail. What is needed to improve comp.groupware? ========================================= An additional archive site, preferable in North America is needed. Also, a WAIS index would be a valuable addition. There are archives that currently are not publicly accessible that could be made available at a site that would like to maintain a more complete set of articles. What is the easiest way to read this FAQ? ========================================= Setext viewer ------------- This text is wrapped as a setext. For more information send e-mail to: setext@tidbits.com A file will be returned shortly. Network Information Retrieval Tools ----------------------------------- The FAQ can be accessed with the following network information retrieval tools: WWW http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/comp-groupware- faq/top.html Gopher The following gopher sites have FAQs: cc1.kuleuven.ac.be port 70 jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca port 70 gopher.univ-lyon1.fr, port 70 ftp.win.tue.nl, port 70 gopher.win.tue.nl, port 70 WAIS Periodic posting archives on rtfm.mit.edu are also accessible via WAIS (the database name is "usenet" on port 210). What about Copyrights? ====================== How do I post copyrighted work? ------------------------------- If you are posting someone else's copyrighted work, indicate at the beginning of the article whether permission has been obtained. If you do not want an article reproduced, indicate this (e.g., Copyright - Net distribution only). All original articles posted to comp.groupware remain copyrighted by their authors. This document's copyright. -------------------------- Copyright 1990 - 1995 by David S. Stodolsky, PhD. All rights reserved. Copyright for parts this document are held by others. Consult those authors directly for further information. Publication, product, and company names may be registered trademarks. Changing this FAQ? ================== Additions. ---------- If you have a book or product list, etc., I will be glad to attach it to a this FAQ and post it regularly. Short additions can be send to me for integration into the FAQ list. Additions to yellow pages, article and book lists, etc., must be sent to their authors directly. Corrections, comments, and suggestions. --------------------------------------- This article compiled with assistance from numerous readers of comp.groupware. Corrections, comments, and suggestions to: David S. Stodolsky Euromath Center University of Copenhagen david@euromath.dk Tel.: +45 38 33 03 30 Fax: +45 38 33 88 80 (C)