 Abstract | There are four contributions of this research: 1) confirmation of inconsistent use of
terminology in the Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) research field;
2) the development of a hierarchical terminology technique that extends the idea of
cognitive mapping into a hierarchy of concepts and dictionary of related definitions;
3) a taxonomy of terminology showing the boundary of the CSCW research field;
and 4) a dictionary of definitions relating to the terminology in the taxonomy.
The investigation of prior research in this field found that there was a proliferation of
terms all relating to support of groups, and there was a proliferation of software and
systems that support groups. However, the terminology and definitions used by
researchers were found to be inconsistent, with some terms being defined differently,
but then used interchangeably. Inconsistency makes it difficult to determine what
technology is being used in the research and where a research study fits into the
research field.
Knowledge of any research field is mainly gained through reading published research
documents. This research analysed published documents in Computer Supported
Cooperative Work (CSCW) to determine the scope, structure and meaning of the
terminology used in this research field. The research resulted in a hierarchy of
terminology and a dictionary of definitions. Future research will determine the value
of these structures for new researchers, experienced researchers, and practitioners.
During the investigation of prior research no technique was identified to undertake
such a study. A hierarchical terminology technique (HTT), which is a form of
content analysis process, was developed to structure a hierarchy of concepts to
expose the relationships between terms. This technique includes terminology
identification, analysis and presentation to show the scope of a research field and to
present terminology and definitions to improve consistency. This technique can be
used in other fields of study. |
