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An investigation into supporting collaboration over the Internet

1998, Computer Communications

Abstract

This paper describes an investigation into the practical use of multi-media tools available on the Internet for the purpose of communication and collaboration between remotely located users. A prototype interface incorporating voice, text and graphics-based communication tools was developed according to the needs of a group of researchers. Experiments were conducted whereby the interface was used to carry out authentic tasks for the joint preparation of a research paper. The tasks involved simultaneous activity between researchers located in the UK and Australia where the time difference between the sites was 8.5 h. From the results of the investigation, issues that are relevant to multimedia tool design and what users can expect in practice from their use on the Internet were identified. 0 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.