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Research paper : Realization of a collaboration system for everyone to develop and manage (K. Eto et al.)−94 Synthesiology - English edition Vol.1 No.2 (2008) can be identified by understanding the current problems, analysis of the current situation can be done simultaneously. Extraction of problems in the current system is done on a concept level as well as on a functional level. New service is designed based on these results. In this design, design philosophy including service vision is determined to create a system design incorporating selection and improvement of component as well as future scalability and linkage with other systems. System implementation follows system design, and cost performance in terms of software engineering is taken into account. Next, test run is done with a certain number of users. In this phase, not only is it necessary to accumulate system log to collect user feedbacks, but it is also necessary to hear direct user comments. Gathered information is analyzed and the design is improved as needed, and the commercial version is completed as the system is continuously improved on the test run. During the analysis and improvement processes, hidden demands may become uncovered and findings that enable implementation of new services can be collected. The commercial version will be sold or licensed to a management company for commercial operation, but maintenance and system improvement must be continued throughout the operation.Described above is the user participation process in Full Research for the web system. qwikWeb was developed according to this process, and currently, the test operation is almost complete. The development process of qwikWeb will be discussed in the following chapters.3 Analysis of the current state of the collaboration systemIn cooperative and collaborative work in organizations such as companies and interest groups, e-mail plays an important role, and communication and collaboration using the mailing list (ML) is done very actively. However, in collaborative work, information may not be structured, and it requires time to confirm the latest information in many cases. On the other hand, collaboration tools or groupware such as Lotus Notes[3] and Cybozu[4] are used since they have functions for schedule adjustment, table making, and collaborative document creation. However, set-up procedure and operation of such systems are complicated, and the managers are heavily burdened by maintenance work. Also, since communication method within the groupware is different from e-mail address used regularly, there is extra work of data transfer when building document and knowledge collaboratively by e-mail exchange. Flexible cooperation with members outside the group is not easy.For a user who must keep the costs of start-up and operation low, and wishes to have a collaboration system that does not place a burden on certain managers, it is necessary that he/she can understand how to use the system just by looking at it, without extensive training on the system. Also, the system must have expandable structure that enables gradual construction of user’s ideal information environment, built up from the environment with which the user is already familiar. For such a user, detailed access control (for example, which user can edit which document) for each document and knowledge is unnecessary. This is because, while systems like Cybozu[4] assume several thousand users, a user who cannot rely on a manager needs a collaboration system for just a few dozen people.As an example of target users, the Authors looked at collaborative work by researchers who could not spare time for groupware management. The researchers used e-mail regularly as a main mode of communication. However, they did not spontaneously use groupware in collaborative work unless ordered by the supervisor to create documents. This was also true even in a situation where it was much more efficient to do collaborative document writing. Why was this? Okada[5] positioned communication at directly below collaboration in his hierarchical model of cooperation to emphasize the importance of communication. Kitagawa[6] divided the online community by three functions – obtain information, establish relationship, and collaborate – and stated that although majority of the communities existed simply to obtain information, the members became close in some communities, and some of them developed into collaborative communities. Close communication is necessary as background of collaboration, and collaboration is only possible through information exchange and agreement through communication. In fact, although collaborations such as report write-ups are done over e-mail, there is a problem in terms of structuring and sharing knowledge because all mails must be read and everything must be corrected and integrated to comprehend the latest information. Therefore, we saw a demand for a system that enabled structuring of intra-group knowledge and writing of collaborative document based on natural intra-group communication flow.The issues were “easy management,” “easy learning,” and “accumulation and structuring of knowledge.”4 qwikWeb service design4.1 qwikWeb design philosophy4.1.1 Basic philosophyAs a result of considering the collaboration system issues mentioned in Chapter 3 from the standpoint of users, we set the basic philosophy of qwikWeb as: “users can freely design the system and the ways it is used.”Since it was not possible for general users to alter the system in Lotus Notes[3] and Cybozu[4], it was difficult to incorporate this basic philosophy. Therefore, we studied Wiki, which was developed by Ward Cunningham, and found it was designed (22)−

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