Distributed group support: a preliminary analysis of the effects of the use of voting tools and sequential procedures

Groups that are both temporally and geographically distributed have serious coordination problems. The purpose of this experiment was to assess the effectiveness of a set of group decision support system tools called "List" and "Vote", and of alternative interaction management procedures, as mechanisms for coordinating distributed groups using a computer conferencing system. The tools appear to have significantly improved several subjectively perceived group outcomes, while the attempted manipulation of the presence or absence of sequential procedures generally did not succeed in creating significant differences.<>