Editing Collaborative software (section)

{{short description|Type of application software}}

'''Collaborative software''' or '''groupware''' is [[application software]] designed to help people working on a common task to attain their goals. One of the earliest definitions of groupware is "intentional group processes plus software to support them."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Johnson-Lenz|first1=Peter |last2=Johnson-Lenz |first2=Trudy|date=March 1991|title=Post-mechanistic groupware primitives: rhythms, boundaries and containers|journal=International Journal of Man-Machine Studies |volume=34|issue=3|pages=395–417|doi=10.1016/0020-7373(91)90027-5}}</ref>

Regarding available interaction, collaborative software may be divided into [[real-time collaborative editing]] platforms that allow multiple users to engage in live, simultaneous, and reversible editing of a single file (usually a document);  and [[version control]] (also known as revision control and source control) platforms, which allow users to make parallel edits to a file, while preserving every saved edit by users as multiple files that are variants of the original file. {{Citation needed|date=November 2019}}

Collaborative software is a broad concept that overlaps considerably with [[computer-supported cooperative work]] (CSCW). According to Carstensen and Schmidt (1999),<ref>{{cite web |last1=Carstensen |first1=P.H.|last2= Schmidt|first2= K. |year=1999 |title= Computer supported cooperative work: new challenges to systems design |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2625053 |access-date= 2023-01-30}}</ref> groupware is part of CSCW. The authors claim that CSCW, and thereby groupware, addresses "how collaborative activities and their coordination can be supported by means of computer systems."

The use of collaborative software in the work space creates a [[collaborative working environment]] (CWE).

Collaborative software relates to the notion of [[collaborative work systems]], which are conceived as any form of human organization that emerges any time that collaboration takes place, whether it is formal or informal, intentional or unintentional.<ref>Beyerlein, M; Freedman, S.; McGee, G.; Moran, L. (2002). [http://media.johnwiley.com.au/product_data/excerpt/39/07879637/0787963739.pdf Beyond Teams: Building the Collaborative Organization]. The Collaborative Work Systems series, Wiley.</ref> Whereas the groupware or collaborative software pertains to the technological elements of computer-supported cooperative work, collaborative work systems become a useful analytical tool to understand the behavioral and organizational variables that are associated to the broader concept of CSCW.<ref>Wilson, P. (1991). Computer Supported Cooperative Work: An Introduction. Kluwer Academic Pub. {{ISBN|978-0792314462}}</ref><ref>Aparicio, M and Costa, C. (2012) Collaborative systems: characteristics and features. In Proceedings of the 30th ACM international conference on Design of communication (SIGDOC '12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 141-146. {{doi|10.1145/2379057.2379087}}</ref>