User requirements capture for a multimedia CSCW system

The early stages of a Europen Union funded multimedia CSCW project scheduled to run for several years are described. The project, called Manicoral, concerns the definition, design, development and implementation of a CSCW as well as a study of cultural, collaborative and communications aspects of a scientific community to whom the interaction media are new. The CSCW system encompasses both data visualisation and communications tools. These are being developed iteratively together with user requirements which are expected to change as the project matures and the user groups become accustomed to using the tools. The Scandinavian perspective and Human Factors analyses are broughttogether in a wholistic conceptual framework in the project to cover both technical requirements and collaboration, communication and cultural issues. Methods applied so far and early results are reported.