Design and implementation of Rapport: a configurable distributed group support system

Teams face a wide variety of tasks, have a wide variety of word styles, and may work in geographically distributed locations. While many people believe networked computers will enhance teamwork, research into how this will be accomplished is in its infancy. While networks are getting faster and cheaper, they are often overloaded. A conjecture of this paper is that computer systems supporting teams must adapt to a wide variety of teamwork styles and (for the foreseeable future) conserve network bandwidth. Rapport, a real-time text oriented group support system, demonstrates the feasibility of these goals.