The panel session started with a series of conference announcements:

• Participatory design conference 2009 (submissions March 2008)
• Persuasive 2008
• Collaborations Technology 2008 in Japan
• CSCW 2008 in San Diego
• GROUP 2007
• Communities and Technologies 2009

Then the panel “The Changing Technological Landscape of CSCW – from BSCW to Sharepoint”:

Carl Gutwin

• the role of technology in CSCW: “underachiever” – everything was done 40 years ago (the Engelbart demo …); the rest that is successful was done without our help (IM, Social Networking, ….)
• So, is there any reason to keep building CSCW systems? Yes! I wanna build cool toys (gadgets)!
• Problem: 80/20 rule – that is the reason why groupware still sucks … “better than nothing does not mean good enough”
• Working with technology can show us new kinds of interactions
• Great example from lab: realtime chess with eight people playing at the same time (on one board)

Mike Fraser

• “What happened to Hiroshi Ishii?” … he is alive and well and publishing in CHI, UIST and DIS … (not in (E)CSCW) – they value experimental design
• Is CSCW committed to new technologies? Or is it ‘mundane’?
• In 1995 it was valued to get a system work!!!
• “just because a mundane technology is easier to study in situ shouldn’t mean we dump new systems from studies”
• “This community should be (a) embracing and (b) generating technically competent researchers.”
• “Why should computer scientists learn about situated action if social scientists can’t code?”

Carla Simone

• traditional approaches coexist with new challenges: the predominant web based “culture”, the pervasive computing paradigm
• need to find an “innovative” way to deal with this contrasting situation
• current situation: several successful application that focus on well defined and generic functionality (IM, BSCW, blogs, …); research prototypical tools that focus on highly specialized goals
• changing the landscape: make these applications really integrated!!!, give collaboration a primary role in shaping the “operating system”, overcome the web approach by creating “local” spaces of cooperation, let users flexibly select their preferred metaphor (task, community, communication, …)

Volker Wulf

• lots of developments in technology – a history of diversification
• diversification also in the way we are using the technologies
• we have less valid assumptions about the current environment of a collaborating colleague
• we have less valid assumptions about technological environment to design for
• use routines are less pre-defined by technology
• “We always said we use IT infrastructure … Now we really do!”
• “Work routines do not ‘benefit’ from IT use, they require IT!” – Danger of breakdown
• Towards Infrastructure-Oriented CSCW: stronger focus on interoperability, prepare for breakdowns, accountable technologies, less anticipable use situations – put the user in control, raising infrastructure awareness (in design), applying research from STS/Cyberinfrastructures to ‘work infrastructures in the small’
• Issue of innovation: we have lost a little bit on innovation in technology (with applications for cooperation), and we have lost a little bit in innovation in management/organization science

Discussion

• Problem: We will not get all the (relevant) “gadget builders” into our community
• One use of gadgets: Gadgets help us to ask questions about ourselves
• Importance of keeping up with the present technologies – e.g. mobile phones are not mentioned/used in the papers at this conference; things that have a huge collaborative impact is what CSCW should have a look at

• After the panel there was an additional announcement: In the future the ACM CSCW conference will be an annual conference – will be moved from November to February to synchronize with ECSCW and GROUP.