CAREER: Integrating CSCW Technology and Practice using Metalevel Architectures

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Collaborating groups are dynamic affairs in which patterns of activity, working styles, levels of interaction, information structures and other elements emerge dynamically in response to the circumstances and settings in which work is carried out. In contrast, the technologies that we offer to support collaboration are static and rigid. Conventional software architectures support only limited degrees of adaptation and dynamic response. Combining analysis, design, and evaluation, this research investigates metalevel architectures, an alternative approach supporting radically dynamic application response. If successful, this will yield both applications and application platforms which provide much more seamless support for collaboration than is currently possible. It also forges new connections between the two major areas of CSCW research, social analysis and technical design. The complex relationship between these two areas of interest is a major challenge to research and teaching. This research further supports the training of a new generation of CSCW researchers who are not just familiar with both halves of the puzzle, but have the skills to put them together.