Privacy and Acting in Groups-Key Concepts in Designing Multimedia-Supported Cooperative Work

Although the term “Computer Supported Cooperative Work” (CSCW) finds its roots in the mideighties and has been the topic to various conferences and research programs, the best-selling software applications of this area consist of nothing else but flavoured electronic mail and a shared database. With some exceptions to the rule, e.g. hot-line support teams, CSCW-applications had only little effect on everyday’s working life. The buzz word of the early nineties had to wait for another buzz word to move back into the centre stage: multimedia. Affordable multimedia computers, fast local and not so fast wide area networks are rising again the interest of both, working professionals and computer scientists. And again the intersection of research in the area of work group and in the area of multimedia technology is almost empty – especially in the German-speaking countries. Very little attention is paid to the needs of cooperative work and cooperative work organisation, and to the question if and how a computer system could help workers to meet their tasks. Meeting this gap, we are focusing on two theoretical constructs from social psychology and from the psychology of action and cognition: privacy and acting in groups. In particular, it will be investigated how these constructs may contribute to the design of software systems which support tele-cooperative work by multimedia facilities and shared applications. The third dimension – the construction of mental models – will not be discussed here.