This monograph presents the still young, but already large and very active interdisciplinary realm of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) in a systematic and well-balanced way. Besides technical progress also the cultural, social, legal, psychological and economic aspects of CSCW are discussed. The book makes accessible a wealth of information and culminates in the development and detailed discussion of a "Collaboratory" suitable to fulfil the needs of scientific cooperation in Europe. The book addresses CSCW research and development professionals as well as the general scientist interested in CSCW-based scientific cooperation. The bibliography with its more than 600 entries and the subject index are particularly comprehensive and helpful.

There is a rapidly-growing commercial awareness of the need for evaluation in CSCW as major producers push to get cooperative technology taken up in commercial organisations. CSCW Requirements and Evaluation looks at ways of evaluating how well computer systems meet the requirements of organisations and their workforces, and establishing how effective, efficient and satisfactory they are for the actual users. It provides an integrated framework for assessment which reflects both practical and academic perspectives. Descriptions of various methods are given, along with examples of their commercial application and specific case studies. Containing contributions from leading authorities in the field, this book will be welcomed by scientists and practitioners involved in organisational research, CSCW, information and business systems, and HCI.

One of the most significant developments in computing over the last ten years has been the growth of interest in computer based support for people working together. Recognition that much work done in offices is essentially group work has led to the emergence of a distinct subfield of computer science under the title Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Since the term was first coined in 1984, there has been growing awareness of the relevance to the field of, and the valuable con tributions to be made by, non-computing disciplines such as sociology, management science, social psychology and anthro pology. This volume addresses design issues in CSCW, an- since this topic crucially involves human as well as technical considerations - brings together researchers from such a broad range of disciplines. Most of the chapters in this volume were originally presented as papers at the one-day seminar, "Design Issues in CSCW", held at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), London, on 17 March 1992, one in aseries of DTI-supported CSCW SIG seminars. We would like to express our gratitude to the series editors, Colston Sanger and Dan Diaper, for their useful comments on, and suggestions for revisions to, the final draft of the manuscript; to Linda Schofield, our editor at Springer, for her continued encouragement throughout the preparation of the manuscript; and, finally, to our respective families for their support and patience over so many months.

Computing, despite the relative brevity of its history, has already evolved into a subject in which a fairly large number of subdisciplines can be identified. Moreover, there has been a noticeable tendency for the different branches of the subject each to develop its own intellectual culture, tradition and momentum. This is not, of course, to suggest that any individ ual subdiscipline has become a watertight compartment or that developments in one branch of the subject have tended to take place in total isolation from developments in other related areas. Nevertheless, it does mean that a deliberate effort is required in order to bring different subdisciplines together in a fruitful and beneficial manner. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computer Supported Coopera tive Work (CSCW) jointly constitute a good example of two branches of computing that have emerged separately and given rise to largely distinct research communities and initiatives. On the one hand, the history of AI can be traced back to the 1950s, the term II Artificial Intelligence" being generally attributed to John McCarthy, who first used it in print in 1956. "Computer Supported Cooperative Work", on the other hand, is a term of more recent coinage, having'been devised by Irene Greif and Paul Cashman in 1984.

Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) systems will undoubtedly play an important role in the application of information systems in the 1990s and beyond. The term "cooperative" is often taken for granted and it is assumed that CSCW users are willing and able to cooperate without any difficulty. This assumption ignores the possibility of conflict and, as a result, the expression, management and resolution of conflict are not supported. CSCW: Cooperation or Conflict? arose from a one-day meeting on computer supported cooperative work which examined the role of conflict in collaborative work. The aim of the meeting was to examine what people actually do when they say they are cooperating, and to assess how this affects the design of systems. The chapters of this book are fuller accounts of the work presented during the meeting. The first chapter presents a survey of studies of conflict in social psychology and related fields, providing both a summary of the main findings and a set of pointers into the literature. The subsequent chapters each present a different view of conflict, focussing particularly on the social and organizational settings, and the factors which lead to conflict. The earlier chapters provide conceptual frameworks for the study of various types of conflict, while the later chapters concentrate on the implications for CSCW. The book is the first to examine conflict from a CSCW perspective. It offers a unique snapshot of current research work in this exciting field, and establishes the importance of the issue. For the designer of CSCW systems, it offers insights into the role of conflict, and an analysis of some of the assumptions on which existing CSCW sytems have been based. For the student and researcher, it provides both an introduction to the area, and a set of in-depth studies suitable to inform future research.

Linguistic Concepts and Methods in CSCW is the first book devoted to the innovative new area of research in CSCW. It concentrates on the use of language in context - the area most widely researched in conjunction with CSCW - but also examines grammatical construction, semantics and the significance of the spoken, written and graphic mediums. A variety of other related topics, such as sociolinguistics, stylistics, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, and applied linguistics are also covered. This book will be of interest to researchers in CSCW, linguistics and computational linguistics. It will also provide invaluable reading for industrial and commercial researchers who are interested in the implications of such research for the design of marketable systems.

Dan, is this book going to provide a substantial, coherent and timely contribution to CSCW or is it just going to be a ragbag of papers from several meetings stuck together? The latter, of course, Colston. However, . . . . . . and the "However" was rather long and technical, but not substantially different in overall content from that of this pref ace. Most of the papers contained in this book were initially presented at meetings organized by the UK's Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Special Interest Group in 1991, but the book is not a proceedings, whatever the above quo tation suggests. Readers will immediately notice that, unlike typical proceedings, all the references are placed together at the end of the book and that there is a substantial index: the hall mark of all proper, technical books of quality. If you choose to delve further than this preface, you will find that each chapter is cross-referenced, thus you also gain a coherent structure across chapters - an advantage traditionally associated with high quali ty single-author books. Furthermore, turning apparent disadvantage to advantage, while single-author books must inevitably present the idiosyncratic perspective of their author, in this book, and appropriately for a young area such as CSCW, you will be presented with the views of a dozen CSCW experts who all have considerable, hard-won experience, gained over many years.