Customization, collaboration, competition and contracting in design

Is design collaboration a technology looking for solutions? Or, has design collaboration been widely used but it just has not received proper recognition? They have been haunting questions in the CSCW research community. This presentation attempts to approach these questions by examining high impact applications such as collaborative design platform used for building design and construction. 'What works' and 'what are missing links?' will be reviewed and discussed. In the mean time, several key research issues related to design collaboration, in particular, customization, competition and contracting will be addressed. Potential approaches toward these issues will also be discussed.