DISTRIBUTED GROUP SUPPORT SYSTEMS

Distributed group support systems are likely to be widely used in the future as a means for dispersed groups of people to work together thro ugh computer networks. They combine the characteristics of computer-me diated communication systems with the specialized tools and processes developed in the context of group decision support systems, to provide communications, a group memory, and tools and structures to coordinat e the group process and analyze data. These tools and structures can t ake a wide variety of forms in order to best support computer-mediated interaction for different types of tasks and groups. This article sum marizes five case studies of different distributed group support syste ms developed by the authors and their colleagues over the last decade to support different types of tasks and to accommodate fairly large nu mbers of participants (tens to hundreds). The case studies are placed within conceptual frameworks that aid in classifying and comparing suc h systems. The results of the case studies demonstrate that design req uirements and the associated research issues for group support systems can be very different in the distributed environment as compared to t he decision room approach.