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Cockburn, A. and Greenberg, S. (1993)
Making Contact: Getting the Group Communicating with Groupware. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Organizational Computing Systems – ACM COCS’93. (Milpitas, California), ACM Press, pages 31-41, November.
Type: Refereed conference (full paper).
Earlier version: Report 1993-498-3, January.
DOI: 10.1145/168555.168559

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Abstract.
While groupware is readily available, people on wide area networks-such as the Internet-have considerable trouble contacting each other and setting up groupware connections. To pinpoint why this occurs, this paper identifies human factors critical to getting a group communicating through groupware. It addresses how people find suitable partners, and how people choose appropriate communication mediums. These factors are discussed in detail, and form a design foundation for systems that promote social presence and that integrate communication.

Existing systems are critically reviewed and shown to be inadequate for general use over a wide area net, for they either do not meet some basic design criteria, or they require a very high technological entry level that is beyond the reach of most computer users. As an alternative, the paper presents the design considerations behind TELEFREEK, a flexible, extensible, and customizable platform for collaboration. Drawing on resources freely available to the Internet community, TELEFREEK assists people making contact with others, and integrates access to common communication facilities.

Keywords: Contact facilitation, casual interaction, coordination, computer supported cooperative work, groupware.