HICOM: an interactive scientific community

HICOM is an information and communication service for researchers and practitioners in the field of human computer interaction. The paper reviews the use of HICOM to support the exchange of ideas and information, and discusses the future of such cooperative electronic communities in terms of the concept of the `Collaboratory´. It also looks at the way the sharing and use of information affects scientists and practitioners in different organizational settings, and assesses the experience of the HICOM conferencing system in the light of the emerging concept of an electronic `collaboratory´. Finally it looks at the application of the lessons that have been learned in building future collaboratories, and at the possible future development of the HICOM system itself