A detailed introduction to interdisciplinary application area of distributed systems, namely the computer support of individuals trying to solve a problem in cooperation with each other but not necessarily having identical work places or working times. The book is addressed to students of distributed systems, communications, information science and socio-organizational theory, as well as to users and developers of systems with group communication and cooperation as top priorities.

This comprehensive introduction to the field represents the best of the published literature on groupware and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). The papers were chosen for their breadth of coverage of the field, their clarity of expression and presentation, their excellence in terms of technical innovation or behavioral insight, their historical significance, and their utility as sources for further reading. sourcebook to the field. development or purchase of groupware technology as well as for researchers and managers. groupware, and human-computer interaction.

This book addresses an area of perception engineering which deals with constructive processes. A model of the environment is analyzed using the information acquired from mUltiple viewpoints of multiple disparate sensors at multiple time instants. Although the role of successive model building and active exploration of the environment, as is discussed in this book, is of great importance, only a few researchers of machine perception have thus far addressed the problem in these directions. Krotkov's book, which is a modification and continuation of his highly successful dissertation, focuses on active exploratory sensing in the context of spatial layout perception. He uses stereo and focus to obtain distance By information, and to eventually develop cooperative combining techniques. means of a stereo system with verging cameras, it is demonstrated that the distance measurements can be significantly improved by combining two sources. In addition, the problem of merging information from the multiple views is discussed in detail. As the field of perception engineering seems to be of growing scientific and applied importance, both practitioners and researchers in machine perception will find this book a valuable addition to their libraries. RameshJain Series Editor Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Ruzena Bajcsy for her constant encouragement and guidance during the five years of research leading to the dissertation upon which this book is based. Without her help in all matters, this work would never have been possible.

A detailed introduction to interdisciplinary application area of distributed systems, namely the computer support of individuals trying to solve a problem in cooperation with each other but not necessarily having identical work places or working times. The book is addressed to students of distributed systems, communications, information science and socio-organizational theory, as well as to users and developers of systems with group communication and cooperation as top priorities.

Cooperation is pervasive throughout nature, but its origin remains an open question. For decades, social scientists, business leaders, and economists have struggled with an important question: why is cooperation so ubiquitous among unrelated humans? The answers would have profound effects because anything that promotes cooperation leads to more productive work environments and benefits society at large. Game theory provides an ideal framework for studying social dilemmas, or those situations in which people decide whether to cooperate with others (benefitting the group) or defect by prioritizing their self-interest (benefitting only the individual). The social dilemma is formulated as a mathematical game and then programmed into a computer model. Simulating the game allows researchers to investigate potential theories to explain how cooperation emerges and what promotes its persistence. Over the past 25 years, countless papers on social dilemma games have been published, yet arguably little progress has been made. The problem is the social dilemma game models are unrealistic in the sense they contain artificial constructs that deviate from the way humans act. This book describes the shortcomings in current social dilemma game modeling techniques and provides guidance on designing more effective models. A basic introduction to game theory is provided with an emphasis on the prisoner's dilemma, the most widely studied social dilemma game. Individual chapters are provided detailing the shortcomings of weak selection, spatial games, and the Moran process. Computer model validation is also discussed at length. The recommendations found in this book should help design more realistic social dilemma game models likely to produce a better understanding of human cooperation.

Information technology has been used in organisational settings and for organisational purposes such as accounting, for a half century, but IT is now increasingly being used for the purposes of mediating and regulating complex activities in which multiple professional users are involved, such as in factories, hospitals, architectural offices, and so on. The economic importance of such coordination systems is enormous but their design often inadequate. The problem is that our understanding of the coordinative practices for which these systems are developed is deficient, leaving systems developers and software engineers to base their designs on commonsensical requirements analyses. The research reflected in this book addresses these very problems. It is a collection of articles which establish a conceptual foundation for the research area of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work.