Is Coordination a Means to Collaboration?

Coordinated multiple view (CMV) approaches have become commonplace in the development of visual tools for information visualization and visual analytics. However, research and development in CMV has focused almost exclusively on the exploratory and analytic needs of individual users working in traditional interactive desktop environments. Current understanding of collaboration in terms of perception, interaction, conceptualization, and social organization begs for integrated approaches to exploration and analysis that support visualization of information in multiple coordinated views by multiple actors working across time and space in multiple roles and environments. This statement outlines two key aspects of a possible strategy for achieving acquisition, exploration, communication, and management of information in a collaborative exploratory visualization environment built on top of a solid foundation of well-established CMV techniques.