Awareness Elements In Web Based Cooperative Writing Applications

In this paper, we present our practical experience of exploring Web based Cooperative Writing Applications(CWA), a kind of groupware which supports people working in groups to achieve common tasks. While producing cooperatively, participants need structured information about activities of their colleagues and the shared production. Without these features, the cooperative production would be inconsistent and incoherent. We study awareness functionalities integrated into several CWAs on the basis of present and past elements, the kind of communication service, and coordination mechanism. The objective of this study is to investigate the trade-off concerning awareness and to provide evaluation assistance to a group or a member in choosing an application for joint production.