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The emergence of network facilities and the increased availability of personal computer systems over the last decade has seen the development of interest in the use of computers to support cooperative work. This volume presents the proceedings of the fifth European conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). This is a multidisciplinary area which embraces both the development of new technologies and an understanding of the relationship between technology and society. This volume contains a collection of papers that encompass activities in the field. It includes papers addressing distribute virtual environments, the use of the Internet, studies of work and emerging models, theories and techniques to support the development of cooperative applications. The papers present emerging technologies alongside new methods and approaches to the development of this important class of applications. The work in this volume represents the best of the current research and practice within CSCW. The collection of papers presented here will appeal to both researchers and practitioners alike, as they combine an understanding of the nature of work with the possibilities offered by new technologies.

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is an interdisciplinary research area devoted to exploring the issues of designing computer-based systems that enhance the abilities to cooperate and integrate activities in an efficient and flexible manner for people in cooperative work situations. This volume is a rigorous selection of papers that represent both practical and theoretical approaches to CSCW from many leading researchers in the field. As an interdisciplinary area of research, CSCW brings together widely disparate research traditions and perspectives from computer, human, organisational and design sciences. The papers selected reflect a variety of approaches and cultures in the field. Audience: Of interest to a wide audience because of the huge practical impact of the issues and the interdisciplinary nature of the problems and solutions proposed. In particular: researchers and professionals in computing, sociology, cognitive science, human factors, and system design.

th This volume gathers together the technical papers presented at the 8 European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW), held in Helsinki Finland. ECSCW is an international forum for multidisciplinary research covering the technical, empirical, and theoretical aspects of collaboration and computer systems. The 20 papers presented here have been selected via a rigorous reviewing process from 110 submissions. Both the number of submissions and the quality of the selected papers are testimony to the diversity and energy of the CSCW community. We trust that you will find the papers interesting and that they will serve to stimulate further quality work within the community. The technical papers are complemented by a wider set of activities at ECSCW 2003, including tutorials, workshops, demonstrations, videos, posters and a doctoral colloquium. Together these provide rich opportunities for discussion, learning and exploration of the more recent and novel issues in the field. This conference could not have taken place without considerable enthusiasm, support and participation, not to mention the hard work of a number of people. In particular, we would like to thank the following: • The authors, representing over 17 countries and 97 institutions, who submitted a paper. So many submissions of such high quality are the basis of a good conference. • The members of the program committee who so diligently reviewed and discussed papers. Their collective decisions result in a good scientific program and their feedback to authors strengthens the work of the community.

The emergence of network facilities and the increased availability of personal computer systems over the last decade has seen a growing interest in the use of computers to support cooperative work. This volume contains the proceedings of the sixth European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), a multi-disciplinary area which embraces both the development of new technologies and an understanding of the relationship between technology and society. These proceedings present a collection of papers that encompass activities in the field, treating such subjects as virtual environments, uses of the Internet, studies of cooperative work and emerging models, studies of groupware systems in use in real-world settings, and theories and techniques to support the development of cooperative applications. The articles feature emerging technologies alongside new methods and approaches to the expansion of this important class of applications. Audience: This work reflects the best of the current research and practice within CSCW. It will appeal to both researchers and practitioners whose work involves computer and information science, human-computer interaction, information systems, hypermedia, organisational/social informatics and social studies of science and technology.