Coordinating the complexity of design using P2P groupware

Abstract

Complexity in collaborative design has technical as well as social aspects. Design team members must learn to manage the technical interdependencies between design tasks, as well as the social processes related to construction and maintenance of design teams. Such activities tend to require constant communication and coordination. One promising approach to team communication and coordination involves use of peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies. Collaboration technologies, or groupware, enable construction of online social groups in which specialised types of information can be exchanged. P2P-based groupware allows design team members to acquire relevant local perspectives from their collaborators in a distributed, non-prescriptive fashion. A P2P approach to design communication and coordination is discussed in relation to theories on structuration, which similarly address issues related to local action and emergent social structure.

Keywords:

• Complexity
• Collaboration
• Peer-to-peer (P2P)
• Structuration theory