CSCW—Towards a Third Dimension Taking Seriously the Social Dimension in Virtual Cooperatio.pdfVIP

CSCW—Towards a Third Dimension Taking Seriously the Social Dimension in Virtual Cooperation RIGITTE ÖMMER BROEMMER RESEARCHSTUDIO AT B R ( @ . ) SMART AGENT STUDIO ESEARCH TUDIOS USTRIA . . , R S A HASNERSTRAßE 123, 1160 VIENNA, AUSTRIA ARKUS ESCHL FRANZ MARKUS PESCHL UNIVIE AC AT M F. P ( - . @ . . ) DEPT. OF PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA SENSENGASSE 8/10, 1090 VIENNA, AUSTRIA Abstract In business and education there is a growing occurrence of virtual teams, which interact mainly via computers. We analyze the levels of interaction and the channels through which communication is conducted, and the problems which are caused by the lack of the representation of a social dimension. As a first step towards a solution of these problems, we present an application which represents social relations among team members. Keywords Computer supported cooperative work, visual chat, social dimension Introduction There is a growing necessity for people to cooperate with others in distributed virtual teams, be it in virtual learning groups, in the context of science, or in project teams in a business environment. Virtual team refers to a rather novel form of organization, which may be rapidly formed and dissolved and whose members are dispersed across time, space, and often culture [1]. Currently, 90-95% of virtual communication is still conducted via classical e-mail. This is mainly due to reasons of usability, ease of use, accessibility, and security [2]. As is well known, however even in simple coordination t