THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF WORKGROUPS IN A THEATRE OF WORK

The members of workgroups need information about each other in order to cooperate efficiently and effectively. In face-to-face situation this information is available and can be captured naturally. In other situations the distributed users need technological support for this awareness information. Such systems should provide information about things that are going on currently, but also about the history of the actions and interactions in the workgroup. Ideally such systems should also provide predictions about possible future events. In this paper we introduce the Theatre of Work Enabling Relationships (TOWER) environment, which provides an infrastructure for awareness information support. We then discuss how it can be used to present information on the workgroup's past, presence, and future.