The Impact of CSCW on Open Distributed Processing

The user-centred philosophy of CSCW challenges the established principles of many existing technologies. In turn the development of CSCW is dependent on the facilities provided by these technologies. It is therefore important to examine and understand this interrelationship. This paper focuses on distributed computing, a technology central to the development of CSCW systems. In particular, the paper considers the proposals for standardisation in Open Distributed Processing and the support provided by such proposals for CSCW. This paper highlights two important modes of cooperation, namely cooperation through information exchange and cooperation through shared spaces. The latter is highlighted as being of principal importance to the Open Distributed Processing community. The paper then analyses the support provided by ODP for information sharing. It is argued that a number of problems exist with existing ODP proposals. More specifically, ODP does not reflect the style of control found in cooperative applications. In addition, the needs of CSCW systems which require multimedia information will be important to ODP. A number of specific suggestions are made to address these deficiencies in current systems.

[1]  A. Z. Spector.  Distributed transaction processing facilities , 1990 .

[2]  Philip A. Bernstein,et al.  Concurrency Control in Distributed Database Systems , 1986, CSUR.

[3]  Terry Winograd,et al.  A Language/Action Perspective on the Design of Cooperative Work , 1987, SGCH.

[4]  Kjeld Schmidt,et al.  CSCW: Four Characters in Search of a Context , 1989, ECSCW.

[5]  Ahmed Patel,et al.  The AMIGO Project: advanced group communication model for computer-based communications environment , 1986, CSCW '86.

[6]  Gordon S. Blair,et al.  INCORPORATING MULTIMEDIA IN DISTRIBUTED OPEN SYSTEMS , 1991 .

[7]  Michael L. Begeman,et al.  gIBIS: a hypertext tool for team design deliberation , 1987, Hypertext.

[8]  Cosmos Andrea Nicolaou,et al.  An Architecture for Real-Time Multimedia Communication Systems , 1990, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..

[9]  W. B. Croft,et al.  Using a planner to support office work , 1988 .

[10]  T.D.C. Little,et al.  Network considerations for distributed multimedia object composition and communication , 1990, IEEE Network.

[11]  Daniel G. Bobrow,et al.  Beyond the chalkboard: computer support for collaboration and problem solving in meetings , 1988, CACM.

[12]  Ralf Steinmetz,et al.  Synchronization Properties in Multimedia Systems , 1990, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..

[13]  Thomas W. Malone,et al.  Object lens: a “spreadsheet” for cooperative work , 2018, TOIS.

[14]  Allan Kuchinsky,et al.  Strudel—an extensible electronic conversation toolkit , 1990, CSCW '90.

[15]  Thomas E. Schütt,et al.  Message-Handling Systems Based on the CCITT X.400 Recommendations , 1987, IBM Syst. J..

[16]  Gordon S. Blair,et al.  CSCW and Distributed Systems: The Problem of Control , 1991, ECSCW.

[17]  Michael Armstrong.  Management processes and functions , 1990 .

[18]  Ramesh Govindan,et al.  Support for continuous media in the DASH system , 1990, Proceedings.,10th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems.

[19]  Th. Kreifelts.  Woetzel: distribution and error handling in an office procedure system , 1986 .

[20]  Wolfgang Prinz,et al.  Relevance of the X.500 Directory to CSCW Applications , 1989, ECSCW.

[21]  Andy Hopper,et al.  The Cambridge Fast Ring Networking System , 1988, IEEE Trans. Computers.

[22]  Stanley B. Zdonik,et al.  Concurrency Control and Object-Oriented Databases , 1989, Object-Oriented Concepts, Databases, and Applications.

[23]  Amit P. Sheth,et al.  An interactive transaction model for distributed cooperative tasks , 1991 .

[24]  Clarence A. Ellis,et al.  Groupware: some issues and experiences , 1991, CACM.

[25]  Gordon S. Blair,et al.  Extensions to ANSA for Multimedia Computing , 1992, Comput. Networks ISDN Syst..