Communicating Design Knowledge with Groupware Technology Patterns: The Case of Shared Object Management

Many groupware frameworks offer programming abstractions to relieve developers from recurring issues during groupware development. However, some properties of the frameworks complicate their usage. We identify these properties and argue that the framework approach alone is not sufficient for supporting groupware developers. Groupware development support should instead educate developers on how to design and implement groupware applications and foster the reuse of proven solutions. We propose pattern languages as an educational and communicative vehicle for reaching this goal. To assist developers in the development process of groupware applications, we provide a pattern language that offers proven solutions for recurring issues in the area of shared object management and allow developers to reuse them.