Bringing context to CSCW

The context concept can be used with advantage in the area of computer-supported cooperative work. For many years, the awareness term has been used in this area without explicit association to context. This work attempts to clarify their relationship. In particular, a framework is proposed to understand context and awareness as connected to other concepts used in group work as well. The framework is useful to consider some groupware systems from the context perspective and to obtain some insight on possible improvements for users.