A cooperative hypermedia approach to supporting team building activities

The paper describes a cooperative hypermedia approach to developing a toolkit for team building activities that often occur in research group meetings or organisation away day events. Each tool is developed and applied using a well-known PowerPoint metaphor. The novelty of the work is reflected on its flexible coordination and facilitation support, its seamless connection between tools for each phase of a team building activity, and its support for follow-up actions. The requirements for the above mentioned features are derived from an analysis of existing practice. Two examples are given to show how typical team building exercises can be supported using the hyper-media based groupware tools.