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Describes the Grace Project, its goals and scope. The aim of Grace is to build distributed group communications tools within an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) networking environment. Grace provides the foundations for a globally distributed system for cooperative working based on information sharing within activity and organizational domains. Introduces a conceptual model of group communications derived from analysing sample activities. Outlines architecture of Grace and explains the use of existing OSI services. Examines two prototype activities: a Help desk in detail and Computer Conferencing in outline. Discusses the implications of trying to control the access to the above type of tools. Briefly describes the status of group communications standardization.

A short presentation concerning the use of computer‐mediated‐communication (CMC) in information work is given together with the latest figures for use worldwide. Human aspects of CMC are discussed briefly. A few traditional information professional applications of electronic mail are described. Special attention is paid to the Danish Science Park Network as an example of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). Through the use of some examples of dedicated ‘person‐centred’ systems (ALANET, LA‐net, etc.), interesting new applications of E‐mail for the information professional are considered.

Questions related to perception in groupware systems have received a lot of attention in recent Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) studies. This paper presents a model of support of perception for a groupware approach based upon communication, coordination and cooperation. The suggested model is applied through learningware technology. The AulaNet learning environment was used as a source of experiences for development of the proposed model. The conception of a new service, implemented on AulaNet to illustrate the utilization of perception information, also is presented. Some of the problems that have been encountered, questions of implementation and difficulties derived from the addition of new functionalities, are highlighted throughout the paper.

Conceptual design is important in that it determines the creativity of products, which is key to the competition of the product market and the function and cost of product are mainly determined in this phase. At the same time it is complex in that it involves the consideration of many different fields in the whole design process. Studying some computer supported cooperative techniques to support effective conceptual design activity is absolutely necessary. This paper presents the models and tools of computer supported cooperative conceptual design (CSCCD) which includes an auto‐resolving model, a human‐human interaction model, automatic cooperation tools and interactive cooperation tools. Experiments have been carried out in the conceptual design of a motorcycle to put the above theories into application.

Deployment of knowledge management systems (KMSs) suffers from low adoption in organizational reality that is attributed to a lack of perceivable added value for people in actual work situations. Poor task/technology fit in the process of knowledge retrieval appears to be a major factor influencing this issue. Existing research indicates a lack of re-contextualizing stored information provided by KMSs in a particular situation. Existing research in the area of organizational memory information systems (OMISs) has thoroughly examined and widely discussed the topic of re-contextualization. The purpose of this paper, thus, is to examine how KMS design can benefit from OMIS research on approaches for re-contextualization in knowledge retrieval.

This paper examines OMIS literature and inductively derives a categorization scheme for KMS according to their strategy of re-contextualizing knowledge. The authors have validated the scheme validated in a multiple case study that examines the differentiatory value of the scheme for approaches with various re-contextualization strategies.

The classification scheme allows a step-by-step selection of approaches for re-contextualization of information in KMS design and development derived from OMIS research. The case study has demonstrated the applicability of the developed scheme and shows that the differentiation criteria can be applied unambiguously.

Because of the chosen case study approach for validation, the validation results may lack generalizability.

The scheme enables an informed selection of KMSs appropriate for a particular OMIS use case, as the scheme’s attributes serve as design rationale for a certain architecture or constellation of components. Developers can not only select from various approaches when designing re-contextualizaton but also come up with rationales for each candidate because of structured representation. Hence, stakeholders can be supported in a more informed way and design KMSs more effectively along organizational change processes.

The paper addresses an identified need for systematic characterization of KMS approaches and systems intending to meet the objectives of OMISs. As such, it allows streamlining further research in this field, as approaches can be judged according to their originality and positioned relative to each other.

The first‐ever conference on “computer‐supported cooperative work” (CSCW) defined a new perspective and perhaps even a new speciality in the field of computer science. The fundamental insight is that, with very few exceptions, our work does not take place in isolation but, rather, is embedded in a multiplicity of social contexts. And this, obviously, has enormous implications for how information technology is conceived and designed.

This conceptual article aims to discuss how the concept of a document and documentation along with a general document model could inform us in the design and engineering of information or rather documentation systems.

This paper presents a broad and complementary document model, derived from the last couple of decades' discussion on what is a document and what is documentation. This model is used as a basis for a method, a conceptual tool or a template for analysis of socio‐technical systems.

The authors contend that the document systems analysis is a holistic approach compared to the traditional systems design and engineering reductionist approach, and also in the context of sociotechnical systems design. The document model is a taxonomy of the constituents of the document and, the authors argue, a potential communication tool in systems design.

The document model presented in this article is discussed more or less solely in the context of information systems design, specifically sociotechnical systems. Moreover, the authors have tried to fit the theory and model within this context here, even though the concepts and thoughts can have much more general implications.

This presentation of a novel document model and framework is presented as a potential tool for systems analysis and design. The authors regard this as a realistic vision for the framework, but at the current stage of development for the model it is probably more useful as draft for such a tool or framework; a point of departure for the discussion of practical – and theoretical – implications of a broad and holistic document model.

A novel, unpublished document model, derived from theoretical discourses of document ontology in the “neo‐documentalist” movement spawned from a particular research community in Tromsø, Norway, is presented and discussed in the light of information systems design.

The guest‐editors of the first Special Issue on E‐Collaboration provide an introduction to the issue. E‐collaboration is broadly defined as collaboration among individuals engaged in a common task using electronic technologies. A brief history of the evolution of e‐collaboration technologies is offered along with a discussion of research in the area. The paper concludes with a brief review of the contributions to the Special Issue and a look at one important future challenge for e‐collaboration researchers, the challenge of theoretical summarization.