An architecture to support context of use in groupware systems

Due to the dynamic nature of collaborative environments, the software for supporting collaborative work (groupware) should adapt itself to the different situations that may occur. This requirement is related to the concept of “Context of Use”, which has been considered as an important element in the design of interactive systems. However, two issues about this concept have been identified by current research in context-aware computing: 1) most of the studies have mainly focused on the context of a single user, so the context of multiple users involved in a common project remains unexplored, and 2) adaptability in context-aware systems generally considers a reduced number of contextual variables (mainly user´s location and platform). In this paper, we focus on the context of use from the point of view of collaborative environments, emphasizing the importance of system adaptability depending on the state of projects, organizational policies, physical location of collaborators, available resources and other typical variables of working groups. In order to support and integrate context in groupware, we propose an architecture that is based on real scenarios and situations that serve as a means of validating its functionality.