Advanced database support facilities for CSCW systems

Computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) technology is becoming increasingly important as a means for organizations to achieve their goals, as it offers the ability to model, execute, and control work processes that typically involve multiple people. We discuss the impact and new requirements imposed by CSCW systems from the perspectives of data- and knowledge-base modeling and design, and present an approach for addressing these requirements by extending object-oriented database systems through an active and versatile role mechanism. We examine how such extended object-oriented facilities can be employed to support many aspects of CSCW systems and discuss some implementation issues arising from the development of such an extended data- and knowledge-management system.