Collaborative software (also referred to as groupware or workgroup support systems) is software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve their goals. Collaborative software is the basis for computer supported cooperative work.

“It is not a question of how well each process works; the question is how well they all work together.” – Lloyd Dobyns and Clare Crawford-Mason, Think about quality

Such software systems as email, calendaring, text chat, wiki, and bookmarking belong to this category. It has been suggested that Metcalfe's law — the more people who use something, the more valuable it becomes — applies to such software.

The more general term social software applies to systems used outside the workplace, for example, online dating services and social networks like Friendster, Orkut and Facebook. The study of computer-supported collaboration includes the study of this software and social phenomena associated with it.

Overview

The design intent is to transform the way documents and rich media are shared in order to enable more effective team collaboration. Examples include AirSet, Alfresco, Box.net, Collaber, Documentum, Google Docs, Zoho, Microsoft SharePoint, and Vignette Collab.

Collaboration, with respect to information technology, seems to have several definitions. Some are defensible but others are so broad they lose any meaningful application. Understanding the differences in human interactions is necessary to ensure the appropriate technologies are employed to meet interaction needs.

There are three primary ways in which humans interact: conversations, transactions, and collaborationsFact: date=April 2008.

Conversational interaction is an exchange of information between two or more participants where the primary purpose of the interaction is discovery or relationship building. There is no central entity around which the interaction revolves but is a free exchange of information with no defined constraints. Communication technology such as telephones, instant messaging, and e-mail are generally sufficient for conversational interactions.

Transactional interaction involves the exchange of transaction entities where a major function of the transaction entity is to alter the relationship between participants. The transaction entity is in a relatively stable form and constrains or defines the new relationship. One participant exchanges money for goods and becomes a customer. Transactional interactions are most effectively handled by transactional systems that manage state and commit records for persistent storage.

In collaborative interactions the main function of the participants' relationship is to alter a collaboration entity (i.e., the converse of transactional). The collaboration entity is in a relatively unstable form. Examples include the development of an idea, the creation of a design, the achievement of a shared goal. Therefore, real collaboration technologies deliver the functionality for many participants to augment a common deliverable. Record or document management, threaded discussions, audit history, and other mechanisms designed to capture the efforts of many into a managed content environment are typical of collaboration technologies.