SIGGROUP Annual Report

July 2002 - June 2003
Submitted by: Wolfgang Prinz, Chair SIGGROUP

1. Awards that were given out

In the reporting period SIGGROUP did not give out any award. However, members asked for a re-animation of the SIGGROUP Team award that was initiated some years ago. Members came also up with possible candidates. Therefore we have decided to relaunch this award. It will be awarded at the upcoming ACM GROUP 2003 conference in November.

2. Significant papers on new areas that were published in proceedings

Recent SIGGROUP conferences indicated a growing trend towards research in the areas of community support, group awareness and the combination of cooperation support functionality with augemented reality to address the issue of ubiquitous communication and cooperation support.

3. Significant programs that provided a springboard for further technical efforts

none

4. Innovative programs which provide service to some part of your technical community;

We did not launch any particular programme, but it is currently discussed to combine the subscription to the CSCW Journal with the SIGGROUP membership. This will provide an additional service and benefit for the SIGGROUP members.

It is further discussed to offer cooperation and community support platforms such as BSCW to SIGGROUP members via the the SIGGROUP web-site.

5 A very brief summary for the key issues that the membership of that SIG will have to deal with in the next 2-3 years.

From the organizational perspective, the most important issue for SIGGROUP is a re-establishment of the SIGGROUP board. Candidates have been contacted and it is planned to organize the election for autumn 2003.

From the technological viewpoint, the emergence of new technologies like peer-to-peer computing, web services and semantic web will gain a significant influence on the development of future CSCW/groupware systems. Furthermore the combination of collaboration platforms with mobile, multi-user augmented reality systems will lead to a new forms of cooperation support in the office as well as the manufacturing environment. The integration of cooperation and communication functionality into every-day artifacts and the office environment offers new ways towards the realization of ambient intelligence - currently a hot topic in the EU research funding bodies.