LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Groupware
built 171 days ago
Groupware is not new. It has existed in various guises since computers first enabled different users to share data files. One commonly used form of groupware, computer conferencing, has been used by innovative organisations for more than a decade. What is new, though, is the way that groupware is now available on networked PCs, with Windows interfaces, through products such as First Class and Lotus Notes. Groupware is therefore more accessible and easier to use by non-IT professionals.
Source:
Groupware is technology designed to facilitate the work of groups. This technology may be used to communicate, cooperate, coordinate, solve problems, compete, or negotiate. While traditional technologies like the telephone qualify as groupware, the term is ordinarily used to refer to a specific class of technologies relying on modern computer networks, such as email, newsgroups, videophones, or chat.
Source:
Groupware ... comes in the form of bulletin board, interactive conferencing, threaded discussions, and chat room applications. These applications provide a place to post messages that other users see and can respond to, either in real time or over a period of time. All dialogs can be archived for future reference and users can respond to them at any time. The archive provides a record of events, activities, problems, and solutions that can be referred to at any time.
Source:
Groupware, software for supporting organization members performing work in collaborative fashion, has been around for more than 20 years. There are success stories of implementing packages for group communication and work flow support, such as those pertaining to Lotus Notes. On the other hand, this success is counter-balanced by instances of failed implementations of groupware. What can explain this contradiction and help practicing managers stir groupware toward desired objectives?
Source:
Groupware is divided into two categories related to time and two other categories related to place. When a group is using an application at the same time, it is called synchronous groupware; when a group is using the same application at different times, it is called asynchronous groupware. The place-related categories are collocated, when the groupware is used by people in the same place; and distance, when the groupware is used by people in different places.
Source:
Groupware could be regarded as software that brings together the work of multiple users, located at separate locations, concurrently. Today groupware packages can consist of several web based applications designed to automate collaborative activity but can be just as well a database application designed to merge a handheld platform's output with a very large backend database, via a smaller transactional server.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Groupware