Collaborative work systems

A collaborative working environment (CWE) supports people, such as e-professionals, in their individual and cooperative work. Research in CWE involves focusing on organizational, technical, and social issues.

Working practices in a collaborative working environment evolved from the traditional or geographical co-location paradigm. In a CWE, professionals work together regardless of their geographical location. In this context, e-professionals use a collaborative working environment to provide and share information and exchange views in order to reach a common understanding. Such practices enable an effective and efficient collaboration among different proficiencies.

The following applications or services are considered elements of a CWE:

The concept of CWE is derived from the idea of virtual work-spaces, and is related to the concept of e-work. It extends the traditional concept of the professional to include any type of knowledge worker who intensively uses Information and Communications Technology (ICT) environments and tools in their working practices. Typically, a group of e-professionals conduct their collaborative work through the use of collaborative working environments (CWE).

CWE refers to online collaboration (such as virtual teams,mass collaboration, and massively distributed collaboration); online communities of practice (such as the open source community); and open innovation principles.

A collaborative working system (CWS) is an organizational unit that emerges any time when collaboration takes place, whether it is formal or informal, intentional or unintentional. Collaborative work systems are those in which conscious efforts have been made to create strategies, policies, and structures in order to institutionalize values, behaviors, and practices that promote cooperation among different parties in an organization so as to achieve organizational goals. A high level of collaborative capacity will enable more effective work both at the local and daily levels, and at the global and long-term levels.

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