systemantics

Computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) is the techical term for the collaboration of people on certain topics which is supported by computers. In most cases in practice, this support is limited to email communication and accessing files on a central server. But CSCW can do much more. For instance, communication is not only possible by emails but also via discussion forums (where multiple people can participate, and the results are stored for the future), electronic voice communication (eg. voice over IP and Skype), and more.

Communication platforms can also be used to perform collaborative editing on some document, like it is done in the wiki approach. In a wiki, every user who has access to the wiki can alter a document. If another user does not agree with some change, he or she can restore the old version, but the idea is to accept the change and edit the document again to reflect both points of view. This way, a wiki allows to gain consensus over topics, and is a strong communication medium.

Technically speaking, wikis form a hybrid product between pure communication and pure file exchange. The latter is the other aspect of CSCW, namely the support for a central storage of files and documents. All people for instance working in the same organization have access to this central storage and can retrieve and store files. Elaborated products also allow to assure that members of a certain user group acknowledge the reading of a document, or vote about the contents, or sign a document. CSCW works in small and large environments. To work well, however, every CSCW approach has to be carefully prepared by a detailed analysis of the communication and work processes that should be supported. From the analysis, a concept is developed. The CSCW concept can then be implemented by setting up a combination of software products and workflows.

Websites are mostly seen as a marketing instrument for companies. This leads to the view of a website as another independent matter like a brochure, a flyer, or a business card. But what if you think about the customer's needs? Websites communicate dynamic instead of static information. Customers expect the most recent and most detailed information on a website. They regard the website as the most direct connection to the company.

Therefore, a website has to be seen as an interface to corporate information, like a window to your company. This view opens a new way of thinking. There is no longer ›the website‹ which has to be maintained from time to time via a content management system in order to present up-to-date information. Instead, the website should act as a window to the company's information base.

Of course this view brings up new challenges. Not all information in the company is allowed to be seen by any visitor from outside. Moreover, the information is usually not marketing-ready, and has to be preprocessed before publishing. Systemantics is at your side when you are ready to face these challenges.

If you see your organization as consuming and producing information day in, day out, it is apparently vital to tell apart valuable from needless information. The valuable information has to be stored in a way that it can be of later use. The essential factor here is to be prepared for what comes in the future. You have to know what might be of use in the future, and how to have it accessible when the right moment in the future is there.

This is exactly the subject of corporate information management. In corporate information management, you have to get an overview of the information processed by your company. You have to identify the valuable information, and how many of it to store in the right form and with the right tools for future access. All these issues are addressed during a systematic review of your organization's information processing.

From the results of the review, a strategy is developed. The strategy usually focuses on the development of your organization in the next couple of years. It explains how you should store and access information to be able to face the challenges you expect.