Examine individual changes

'A '''collaborative working environment''' ('''CWE''') supports people, such as [[e-professional]]s, in their individual and cooperative work. Research in CWE involves focusing on organizational, technical, and social issues. ==Background== 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-professional]]s use a collaborative working environment to provide and share information<ref>Collaboration@Work Experts Group, May 1994, [http://www.ami-communities.eu/bscw/wiki.cgi/d26842/Report_on_Visions_04.05.04_IR.pdf Towards a middleware for collaborative work environments]</ref> and exchange views in order to reach a common understanding. Such practices enable an effective and efficient collaboration among different proficiencies. '''JOHN CENA SUCKS''' ==Description== The following applications or services are considered elements of a CWE: * [[E-mail]] * [[Instant messaging]] * [[Application sharing]] * [[Video conferencing]] * [[Collaborative workspace]], [[document management]] and [[version control system]] * Task and [[workflow]] management * [[Wiki]] group or community effort to edit wiki pages. (e.g. wiki pages describing concepts to enable a common understanding within a group or community) * [[Blogging]] where entries are categorized by groups or communities or other concepts supporting collaboration ==Overview== The concept of CWE is derived from the idea of virtual work-spaces,<ref>Hans Schaffers, Torsten Brodt, Marc Pallot, Wolfgang Prinz (editors), March 2006, [http://www.ami-communities.eu/pub/wiki.cgi/d163187/The%20Future%20Workspace.pdf The Future Workspace]</ref><ref>Prinz, W.; Loh, H.; Pallot, M.; Schaffers, H.; Skarmeta, A.; Decker, S. [http://www.cwe-projects.eu/pub/bscw.cgi/d300733/ECOSPACE-OverviewPaper.pdf ECOSPACE: Towards an Integrated Collaboration Space for e-Professionals]</ref> 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 technology|Information and Communications Technology]] (ICT) environments and tools<ref>M.A. Martinez Carreras, A.F. Gomez Skarmeta,2006, [http://www.cwe-projects.eu/pub/bscw.cgi/d300879/Towards%20Interoperability%20in%20Collaborative%20Environments.pdf Towards Interoperability in Collaborative Environments]</ref> in their working practices. Typically, a group of e-professionals conduct their collaborative work through the use of collaborative working environments (CWE).<ref>Collaboration@Work Experts Group, February 2006, [http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/atwork/hot_news/publications/documents/new_collab_environments_2020.pdf New Collaborative Working Environments 2020]</ref> CWE refers to online [[collaboration]] (such as [[virtual team]]s,<ref>J. Lipnack and J. Stamps, 1997, "Virtual Teams: Reaching Across Space, Time, and Organizations with Technology", Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-16553-0</ref> [[mass collaboration]],<ref>Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams,December 2006, [[Wikinomics| Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything]]</ref> and [[massively distributed collaboration]]);<ref>[http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/about/events/dls11092005 Kapor presentation], UC Berkeley, 2005-11-09.</ref> online [[community of practice|communities of practice]] (such as the [[open source]] community); and [[open innovation]] principles. ==Collaborative work systems== <!-- Anchor from redirect: [Collaborative working system]. --> 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.<ref name=Beyerlein2002>Beyerlein, M; Freedman, S.; McGee, G.; Moran, L. (2002). ''Beyond Teams: Building the Collaborative Organization''. The Collaborative Work Systems series. Wiley.</ref> 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. Beyerlein, et al. (2002)<ref name=Beyerlein2002/> define collaboration as the collective work of two or more individuals where the work is undertaken with a sense of shared purpose and direction, that is attentive and responsive to the environment. In most organizations collaboration occurs naturally, but ill-defined work practices may create barriers to natural collaboration. The result is a loss of both decision-making quality and valuable time. Well-designed collaborative working systems not only overcome these natural barriers to communication, they also establish a cooperative work culture that becomes an integral part of the organization's structure.<ref>Neilson, G; Martin, K.; Powers, E. (June 2008). "The secrets to successful strategy execution". ''Harvard Business Review'' '''86''' (6): 60–70.</ref> == CWS and CWE differences== A collaborative work system is related to the collaborative working environment. The latter notion is more focused on technology and was issued from the concept of [[collaborative workspace]]s,<ref>Hans Schaffers, Torsten Brodt, Marc Pallot, Wolfgang Prinz (ed.) (March 2006). [http://www.ami-communities.eu/pub/bscw.cgi/d163187/The%20Future%20Workspace.pdf ''The Future Workspace: Perspectives on Mobile and Collaborative Working'']; AMI Communities at The Netherlands: Telematica Instituut.; retrieved ?</ref> driven from research within the MOSAIC Project. The concept of 'system' in 'collaborative work system' has a self-explanatory power that is different from '[[Environment (systems)|environment]]'. The former pertains to an integrated whole, including collaborative work conceived as a purposeful activity, whilst the later stresses the surroundings of an object - the collaborative working practices - that include a diversified number of tools and software applications mostly for remote collaboration, including video-conferencing, documents and workflow management among other technologies.{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} A collaborative work system generally includes a collaborative working environment, but it should be conceived primarily as a set of human activities, intentional or not, that emerge every time a collaboration occurs. This enables focus on the work practices that are necessary for human collaboration and draws attention to important behavioral variables such as [[leadership]] and [[motivation]] that are not considered within the CWE definition. === CWS and collaborative software (or groupware) === Besides participatory leadership, another key element of a successful collaborative work system is the availability of group collaboration technology or [[groupware]] - hardware and software tools that help groups to access and share the information the professionals need to meet, train or teach. However, a collaborative work system (CWS) does not necessarily require groupware support. A simple way to conceptualize the relation between the two concepts is to consider [[computer supported cooperative work]] (CSCW) as a whole consisting of a collaborative work system (CWS) supported by [[collaborative software]] or groupware. On the other hand, a collaborative working environment which supports people in both their ''individual'' and ''cooperative'' work, whatever their geographical location transcends the notion of CSCW which deals specifically with cooperative work. ==See also== *[[Integrated collaboration environment]] *[[Collaborative information seeking]] *[[Collaborative workflow|Collaborative Workflow]] *[[Organizational culture]] == References == {{reflist|2}} ==External links== *[http://www.ip-ecospace.org ECOSPACE: eProfessionals Collaboration Space] *[http://www.ami-communities.eu AMI@Work on-line Communities] [[Category:Telecommuting]] [[Category:Collaboration]] [[Category:Groupware]] [[Category:Multimodal interaction]] [[Category:Management science]] [[Category:Group processes]] [[Category:Meetings]]'