We are studying groupware to address connectivity issues in support of distance learning and research collaboration . Groupware allows people distributed across the Internet to collaborate on the authoring of documents or simply examine a document and mark it up as if it were on a whiteboard. Synchronous groupware allows interactivity between members who are all participating simultaneously. A simple example of synchronous groupware is a network chat program. Participants type in their individual chat windows and read what other members have typed into theirs.
All users participate at the same time.
Asynchronous groupware facilitates communications among users who are not all simultaneously connected. A mailing list is an example of a simple asynchronous groupware tool. One user sends a message to the list and then other users read the message whenever they check their mail. The programs below are synchronous groupware programs that DT-5 has investigated for use in distance learning and remote collaboration. Each program has a brief description and a link to a place where more information can be found.