MADE - A Groupware Application to Support Real-Time Activities of Distributed and Cooperating Communities

Abstract. Distributed work has increased during the last few years. Employees travelling around in different countries still need access to information and must be reachable by their colleagues. A variety of mobile devices have been utilised for this purpose. However, often, when using multiple devices, the information is available to the appropriate device only. Transferring data between the devices is not always an intuitive or easy thing to do – not while conversing at least. This paper presents a groupware application to support real-time actions of distributed communities. The problem of separate devices is addressed by combining multiple tools, media, into a platform independent aggregate. This allows users to utilise the medium according to their personal preferences or the work situation – regardless of the device they may have.

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