This is the first year funding of a two-year ontinuing award. `Distributed Group Support Systems` embed Group Decision Support System (GDSS)-type tools and procedures within a computer-mediated communication system, to support collaborative work among dispersed groups of people. `Distributed` has several meanings: temporal, spatial and technological. The group members use the system to work together to reach a decision or complete their cooperative work over a period of time, with each person working at whatever time and place is convenient. The theoretical focus of this phase of the research program will be to test propositions that will contribute to a general theory of coordination in distributed groups, by constructing a common database of the results of at least six experiments spanning four different types of tasks. The focus of empirical studies will be coordination mechanisms and processes to support creative and planning tasks, such as software design teams. The products of this program of research will help to provide the knowledge base for effective coordination of the work of collaborative groups using the `information superhighways` that are currently being constructed.
