As discussed in the motivation section, creating a collaborative environment on the Web adds an ``openness'' to the system, i.e., a system can be designed with flexibility and integration as key features without being restricted by proprietary standards and protocols. While our paper focused primarily on creating a platform for global interactions, we did not concentrate on customizing the Collaboratory for specific organizational requirements or business needs. However the open nature allows for such integration; in fact, a collaborative system on the Web can be developed to handle the integration of workflow with messaging systems and databases. One fruitful avenue for future research involves the use of ``normative scripting'' in Web based collaboration to demonstrate workflow automation both within an organization and on a global basis.
``Normative'' implies conformance to a standard or a norm. Normative scripting refers to scripting workflow and processes in an organization. A script in the context of the Web refers to shell programs or CGI processes, which can be triggered by different actions. By scripting or documenting these actions on the basis of certain rules, an entire process could be automated. As mentioned before, actions on the Web are primarily dependent on two dimensions, i.e, a document and its location. A normative script adds a third dimension to this action, by defining when, how and why a certain document is created and where it is located. For example, consider a Web based system for a marketing group that is collaborating on a marketing plan for a product. This plan may have two facets, one involving a comparison of similar products in the market, and the other an internal decision making process which approves or rejects the plan. A normative script will send out ``smart agents'' like Web crawlers to look for references in the plan to existing products and retrieve the information for the marketing group.
If a business rule of the firm requires that at least two-thirds of the group must agree on a certain plan, then a CGI process can be created to verify the group members' stands, and automatically message the document to a senior manager if there is at least a two-thirds approval. We note that while commercial groupware can handle messaging and workflow automation, they also require adherence to proprietary standards. By normative scripting of processes on a Web based Collaboratory, the same functionality can be achieved on a world-wide basis. Such scripts can be particularly useful for the on-line review of electronically submitted research articles, where they can dramatically reduce the turnaround time for author feedback.
Being a global and open environment, the Web holds the promise of providing a collaborative platform for rich interactions between members of a profession or field. Given the distributed nature of this platform, it is imperative that information on a Collaboratory be organized according to a shared understanding of the field of interest. Along similar lines, a Collaboratory must also support well-managed interactions for the exchange and creation of new ideas and concepts. We suggested that the features of a collaborative system should be chosen to maximize user benefits and to minimize their opportunity cost of using the system. Using complementarity theory, we rationalized how the coordinated choice of certain design features would accomplish this objective. With this complementarity theoretic perspective, we argued that an isolationist view of design focusing only on one aspect such as media richness or geographical scope is unlikely to be of much value for collaboration. Our survey data indicate that users of our prototype MIS Collaboratory worldwide have found it to be a useful means for productive interactions. We plan to enhance the prototype with complementary features which were considered as important by the respondents, and also along the lines of normative scripting for workflow automation.