From WYSIWIS to WISINWIS: role-based collaboration

Traditional CSCW (computer-supported cooperative work) systems concentrate WYSIWIS (what you see is what i see) in order to support as many facilities as those in face-to-face collaboration environments. However, many obstacles made these efforts not so successful as was expected. Therefore, we need to consider the other aspects of a CSCW system that can better support collaboration among people, that is, collaboration might be made more productive and more efficient by special computer systems facilities such as role specification. This paper reviews the CSCW systems with concentration on the group awareness support, proposes a new classification of group awareness and illustrates that in collaborative systems WYSINWIS (what you see is not what i see) is as important and constructive as WYSIWIS. Then, it proposes role-based collaboration and role specification mechanisms that can be used to a new method to support WYSINWIS.