Data-knowledge-context: an application model for collaborative work

For many years, researchers and software developers have been seeking to develop systems and applications to enable efficient and effective group work. The systems developed have often had little impact on the effectiveness of group activities outside the laboratory. We suggest that these difficulties are primarily due to a model of application development that has significantly constrained users in properly managing their work products much less share them with others. Instead, we propose an alternative system architecture, the DKC model, that places HCI, knowledge representation and management, and distributed, hypertext operating systems in a coordinated structure. We clearly delineate the roles of each of these aspects within the whole, collaborative environment. By adopting this model, we suggest that researchers and developers of both single-user and collaborative systems are able to design effective, multi-platform, multi-application, and multi-workplace collaborative environments that may finally have some impact beyond the laboratory.