Modelling Groupware in the Electronic Office

This is a report on a project now completed, to explore ideas for a distributed software system intended to enhance people's ability to communicate effectively and conveniently, to give them information about each others' status and whereabouts, and to support them in planning and executing various kinds of computer-supported office tasks both alone and in collaboration. The purpose of the project was to explore architectural issues, user-interface issues, and the definition of possible future products. The approach taken was to create software models of scenes written by a multi-disciplinary team, and to create performances using these models. The paper reviews the objectives of the project, discusses the approach, architecture and implementation, and draws conclusions both about the approach adopted and the ideas explored.