DeleGate: towards a conference diplomat´s multidimensional workstation

Diplomats and other experts are sent as delegations to inter-governmental conferences to implement their governments´ policies. Individual delegates in a multilateral diplomatic conference environment have needs for simultaneous any-time/any-place types of information and communication that have not been met by either traditional GSS studies in a given time/place environment or existing groupware. Technological developments like groupware standardization and emerging PCMCIA connectivity are making possible new visions of potential improvements to support of inter-organizational group processes. In terms of a diplomatic conference this may mean having the host of a conference provide a network platform (server with collaborative software) according to an internationally accepted standard with participating diplomats having access through their own workstations and interfaces. This paper demonstrates the need for more comprehensive, user-centered, multi-methodological IS research and groupware development to assist in navigating the seas of the collaboration archipelago