Supporting Groupware Conventions through Contextual Awareness

Abstract

Conventions are an important part of articulation work. They are a means to merge the various perspectives and workstyles that are involved in handling shared objects in CSCW. We report on convention use with a groupware system used in a government ministry. Our findings suggest that defining, establishing, and following conventions is aided by the visibility of other people's activities using the system. We describe a prototype that supports users in maintaining conventions by providing awareness facilities and an overview for shared objects.