Beyond Current Social Computing: Challenges to Complex Coordinated Systems Design?

ABSTRACT Although, in theory, the underlying systems used to implement CSCW systems are isolated from the interfaces the users see, the difficulty of implementing complex coordinated systems has in the past prevented easy experimentation with different grain-sizes and regimes for coordination. Now, Web 2.0 technologies bring complex, coordinated systems closer to hand and promote social computing into a new level. The new opportunities bring programmers many new challenges, not only from technical perspective, but also from sociological perspective. We study programmer cognition in designing and developing multi-user, co-located coordinated systems. Programmer success, challenges, and barriers in the design and development suggest that many of Grudin’s challenges still remain because programmers’ imagination has not been fully utilized in exploring the range of design possibilities for collaborative systems. Challenging associated limitations to programmers’ “object world” is highly desirable. TupleSpaces provide an infrastructure for doing so, by supporting more widespread exploration of pervasive coordination ideas.