|
Collaboration, literally, consists of working together with one or more others. See collaborative software, consensus.
Although the term collaboration is widely used in many varying contexts such as education, science, art and business, very
little research has been carried out to discover this process’s properties. With the relatively recent advent of computer
mediated communication (CMC), the nature of collaboration is coming under more intensive scrutiny. As software designers,
facilitators and theorists from many diverse fields strive to create more
useful and effective collaborative environments and methods, more light is shown on this ubiquitous and taken for granted
practice. However, what light is being cast is still fairly refracted into the diverse fields in which the research is being
carried out. Perhaps more collaboration into the nature of collaboration will be required to answer such questions as:
- How does collaboration differ from cooperation? (dictionary definitions are generally more or less equivalent)
- What qualifies as a collaboration? (is Wikipedia a collaboration in the same way that a work of art is when two artist
collaborate face-to-face? and for that matter, does a family, city, nation or species qualify?)
- What are the defining principals or elements of this process? (understanding these might help to draw conclusions on
the previous questions)
Etymology: Dating from 1871, collaboration is a back-formation from collaborator (1802), from Fr. collaborateur, from
L. collaboratus, past participle of collaborare "work with," from com- "with" + labore "to work."
Wartime collaboration
As a pejorative term, the word "collaboration' can describe the treason of
cooperating with enemy forces occupying one's country. Collaboration "traitorous cooperation with the enemy," dates from 1940,
originally in reference to the Vichy Government of France.
During World War II, those accused of collaboration with Axis Powers included:
External links
|
