Supporting coordination in CSCW systems

A method for defining coordination in computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) systems is presented. General coordination semantics defined in terms of speech acts and general modules that can implement such semantics are described. The general objects achieve flexibility by separating coordination knowledge into its local and global components and distributing this knowledge among system objects. Objects are classified as ports, links, and conversation objects. Ports are embedded in problem objects and define the interface of these objects to the coordination process. Coordination between ports is defined by link objects, which correspond to speech acts. The link objects in turn are combined into coordination objects to form complex coordination processes. The structure of these objects is defined together with examples of how they are used to form CSCW systems