Out of a fascination for computer supported cooperative work The COOPerator project was designed to expand our understanding of groupware. Since Tilburg University is an educational institute interest has been primarily focussed upon the potential uses of computerised media in education. The introduction of computers has given rise to much discussion about their potential uses in education. A survey held among lecturers at the Faculty of Economics of Tilburg University showed that students are required to work together in groups during a large share of the courses (Tuk [1994]). Therefore, it was decided to build a prototype that primarily supports cooperative work, collaborative writing in particular, among students.
When the project started in February 1993 two main goals were identified:
Most students (including myself) that contributed to this undertaking, are students of Information Management and Technology at Tilburg University. Personally, I wanted to gain more knowledge with regard to computer supported cooperative work which was all new to me as well as human-computer interaction that started to fascinate me during the Applied Computer Science Seminar, which is being taught by Ir. Egon Verharen. Moreover, having learned a lot about the object oriented paradigm at university, I thought it to be fascinating to put this theoretical knowledge into practice. It did not take much time before Ir. Verharen had me convinced and I was the one responsible for the design and implementation of COOPerator's human-computer interface!
In this subsection of my thesis, I present a detailed description of The COOPerator project. To start with, a classification of The COOPerator within the field of computer supported cooperative work is given. Once the project's target had been identified with the input of Galegher and Kraut [1994], Flower and Hayes [1981], Kraut et. al. [1992], Leland et. al. [1988], McCarthey and McMahon [1992], Miles et. al. [1993], Neuwirth et. al. [1990], Posner and Baecker [1991], Rimmershaw [1992], Saunders [1989], and Sharples et. al. [1993], which resulted in a model of collaborative writing, a number of brainstorm sessions were organised to identify the functionality of the tool. A report of the brainstorm sessions and the outcome is offered.
As a final result of these brainstorm meetings, four main functions came up as focal points for support of the collaborative writing process. The COOPerator does not only provide support for group writing. Moreover, we carefully examined different types of CSCW systems: message systems, coordination systems, and conferencing systems. Naturally, the core of the system's environment is the document processing facility. This means that the other facilities incorporated in The COOPerator should ease the production of a joint document. The issue space should aid the group members to maintain a common ground or shared context for action throughout the completion of their joint task. A graph is used to model the shared environment and a browser makes it possible for the group members to get an overview of their common ground. Another means of interaction between co-authors is provided by the mail facility. It is meant for sending short and simple messages that are not directly related to the document. The agenda is meant for easy planning of face-to-face group meetings that are not mediated by the computer.
Also in this subsection, an overview of the available technical infrastructure is presented together with a description of the typical computer configuration which we regard as the minimal configuration necessary for using The COOPerator co-authoring and argumentation system.
Finally, I conclude with enumerating what The COOPerator is not. Though we expect this application to mean a lot for co-writing students, it may not live up to all their expectations.
Sjoerd Michels, Tilburg, The Netherlands