Groupware prototypes and products support
communication, allow for shared information, and coordinate activity
in a given context. Traditionally, they have been classified by the
support they provide for different kinds of time and place interactions.
Figure 
shows the traditional classification framework for
groupware.
Figure: A Time/Place Framework for Groupware
Figure shows a framework for
groupware based on the degree of structure in the task and the group.
Indeed, we might imagine collaboration efforts as being
of one of four types:
Figure: A Group/Process Framework for Groupware
Coleman and Khanna [18, page 5,] provide a layered model of
the groupware environment. The framework shown in Figure is
loosely based on their model, but explicitly extends it to account for
toolkits and to distinguish between products that are
fixed and ones that are extensible.
Figure: A Layered Framework for Groupware
Yet additional frameworks might be suggested. For example, collaboration changes in nature as the scope of the effort grows. Collaboration within a small group in a single department in an organization is easier from a technological point of view than collaboration across continents and organizations (enterprise wide collaboration). Similarly collaboration in terms of data sharing is different than collaboration in terms of document creation or information sharing. All of these frameworks need to be considered as we think about the functional requirements for collaboration software.