Evolutionary Development and Research on Internet-Based Collaborative Writing Tools and Processes to Enhance Ewriting in an Egovernment Setting

Abstract

The Center for the Management of Information (CMI) at the University of Arizona has been actively involved in research with various U.S. government organizations for nearly twenty years. This article details the years of evolutionary development and research conducted by CMI in an eGovernment setting that resulted in the creation of an Internet-based collaborative writing (eWriting) tool, called Collaboratus. By embracing persistence, serendipity, and years of multi-methodological research in the field and in the lab, CMI has built on the foundation of eWriting research that was largely abandoned at the beginning of the eBusiness revolution. This research shows the promising potential for Collaboratus and eWriting tools to help improve digital government through improved document production and collaboration, and highlights many future research opportunities.

Keywords: Collaborative writing, group writing, eWriting, eGovernment, eGov, digital government, GSS, collaboration, group work, facilitation, distributed work, self-sustaining writing teams, multi-methodological research, collaborative systems development