Models of Collaboration

Models of Collaboration

By Timothy Butler and David Coleman

"In this guest editorial we examine five models for collaboration that vary from barely interactive to intensely interactive. Granted the CS definition for collaboration requires some level of interaction by two or more people, and in the past we have said that reciprocal data access (such as you would find in a library or repository) is not collaboration, we have also said that technology, content and process are critical for any type of collaboration. This being the case we are expanding our definition of collaboration (slightly) to include content libraries as most of the vendors in this area have added collaborative functionality. In addition, content is often critical for a collaborate interaction to occur."