This article is a part of the collaborative research project to develop a general theory of collaboration. |
Collaborative media refers to the medium in which a collaboration takes place. For instance a word document or wiki in the case of coauthoring, vocalisations, body language, auditory and visual perceptions in face-to-face collaborations, or a mix of many media as in the case of the production of a play. A collaborative medium provides a substrate for information exchange and in doing so, becomes an environment to which the participants are constantly responding and adapting to in relation to their collaborative contributions and the changing qualities of the evironment itself. |
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Media as environment[]
A collaborative medium may enable a great many types of information exchange occurring simultaneously, thereby generating a field of information which is undergoing continuous articulation, manipulation and reception, all the while being affected by the unique characteristics of the medium itself. This media therefore constitutes an environment which not only contains the information being exchanged and manipulated, but the participants themselves.
... providing a means for the participant to stigmergically respond to this environment
Types of collaborative media[]
Different forms of collaborative media are often mixed and varied in response to the current state of the emergent shared understandings, the many variations possible providing the ability for the media to adapt and optimise toward supporting the domain's information exchange.