Publisher's Synopsis
This study, which represents the research and work undertaken by the AMIGO Group, aims to promote understanding of the group communication processes. Emphasis is placed on the human communications problems raised by the use of distributed, time-deferred communication systems.;The authors study problems caused by the lack of opportunity for partners to observe each other, by the lack of support for negotiation and by the need to adhere to appropriate etiquettes and overall co-operation. They outline the material, concepts and results produced as a result of the Group's work, giving the background to group communication or communications patterns, the need for technical support and the impact of such support.;The second part of the work introduces and defines the AMIGO Activity Model, which predefines the co-ordination required for group activity. There is an overview of the approaches, concepts, models and systems of support group communication, with a prototype model of some example activities.;The final sections of the text propose an architectural model, explaining the concepts for the embedding of group communication support agents into a distributed environment, and outlining strategies for the application of the AMIGO Activity Model.
