The Web is the most well-known hypermedia system. Some variations of hypertext that the web does not typically support include:

• allowing people to link from any document, including ones that they don’t own
• creating links of different “types”, such as distinguishing between “definition” links, “see also” links, and “author” or “source” links (which would lead to information about the author or source text of a passage)
• allowing a single phrase or graphic to have links to multiple destinations

This technology may be used to communicate, cooperate, coordinate, solve problems, compete, or negotiate. While traditional technologies such as the telephone qualify as groupware, the term is ordinarily used to refer to a specific class of technologies relying on modern computer networks, such as email, newsgroups, videophones, or chat.

Groupware technologies are typically categorized along two primary dimensions:

1. whether users of the groupware are working together at the same time (“realtime” or “synchronous” groupware) or different times (“asynchronous” groupware), and
2. whether users are working together in the same place (“colocated” or “face-to-face”) or in different places (“non-colocated” or “distance”).

1. input method – gestures are pen movements that can be recognized as various symbols or commands. For example, a circling movement may indicate selection, a zigzag movement deletion, or a rapid swipe may indicate scrolling.
2. communicative gestures – any body, face, or hand movement which is used in conversation to communicate or to reinforce what is being spoken. Gestures are particularly relevant in synchronous groupware systems such as videoconferencing or shared drawing. Videoconferencing systems, for instance, are often designed to transfer images of the face and miss out on hand gestures. In collaborative applications such as shared drawing, objects can be moved to communicate some physical gestures, and telepointers communicate other gesture information.

On the other hand, in many situations intrusive signals can interfere with a higher-priority primary task. In those situations, most people want to turn off intrusive signals that don’t indicate emergencies, for instance, by turning off their phone ringer.

Paying attention to which types of signals can be intrusive (audio, flickering media, speech, animations, large changes in the visual field, touching), we can help the user control when and how they wish to be interrupted and avoid distracting them with unnecessary signals.

In the non-perceptual domain, many interruptions of work, such as spam email, are viewed as intrusive, to the extent that people cannot avoid the way in which those activities interfere with their desired activities.

Variations include a MOO (object-oriented MUD), MUCK (multi-user chat kingdom), and MUSH (multi-user shared hallucination). While some people make careful distinctions, the terms are used fairly interchangeably.

Floor control can be applied to any particular access permission of an object, but typically it refers to the right to edit an object while all users are able to view the object. Some examples of floor control are: allowing all users to edit the object concurrently, having a moderator who decides who has write permission for the object, or having a token which is passed around to give each user write permission as the token is held.

Some common design issues in multi-user systems include:

• sharing – how information is shared and how sharing is indicated for different aspects of the user interface
• security and privacy – the need to protect information and the privacy of users
• awareness – providing useful information about other users’ behavior to help coordination
• session control – managing how multi-user sessions are initiated and finalized, and who can participate in a group session
• floor control – preventing users from conflicting with each other and managing temporary access to conversational props

• avoiding forwarding virus warnings without checking with your system administrator
• reading the frequently asked questions before posting to a newsgroup
• including the last-updated date on any web page containing information which may become dated

When groupware is being used, a facilitator can also take the role of aiding the participants in their use of technology and helping to choose which features of the groupware are most appropriate at each stage of the meeting.