CTS 2012 plenary speech

Most work on collaboration technologies (GDSS, CSCW, etc.) has traditionally focused on supporting social action and communication in settings of relatively low goal conflict. This is appropriate in many organizational contexts, where common goals based on a shared management structure can be assumed. But much of communicative action in human societies occurs in an environment of conflict. We can distinguish at least two dimensions of conflict: one involving beliefs and one involving goals.