Informed Opportunism as Strategy: Supporting Coordination in Distributed Collaborative Writing

Abstract

There is little understanding of how distributed writing groups manage their col-laboration and what kinds of support are most useful. The paper presents three case studies of distributed collaborative writing groups in academia. The process evolves over time, constantly adapting to changing circumstances. Co-authors offer and make use of a range of information. Their subsequent opportunistic use of this information to make appro-priate ad hoc decisions in new circumstances, appears to be essential to achieve flexibility and coordination. We call this informed opportunism. We identify design implications for support tools for distributed collaborative writing.