Collaborating in cyberspace: a case study of computer-mediated communication among 100 scholars on 15 countries

Summary form only given. ProjectH was comprised of more than 100 scholars from 15 countries who collaborated by computer-mediated communication over a period of several years in the early 1990s in order to study network-supported group activity in a computer-mediated environment. Collaborative computer-mediated communication (CCMC) is conceptualized as the process of shared creation in which participants create a common meaning in a mutually shared space or environment, for a specific purpose, through the use of computer-mediated communication. The following key findings resulted from the research: in ProjectH, the CMC environment facilitated collaborative processes that might not have been possible in other environments such as in face-to-face communication; computer-mediated electronic message exchange formats have unique properties that facilitated collaboration in ProjectH; coordinators played a crucial role in the process of collaborative computer-mediated communication in ProjectH; various electronic message exchange formats and communication management strategies were utilized in the CCMC process in ProjectH; limitations of CMC, such as the lack of face-to-face communication or the lack of physical presence, did not necessarily inhibit effective collaborative in the case of ProjectH; the quantity of participant posts was positively related to the quantity of coordinator posts; highly-active participants displayed a very disproportionate number of posts, compared to other members of ProjectH