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Group Decision Support Systems




A Group Decision Support System (GDSS) can also be referred to as a Group Support System (GSS) or an Electronic Meeting System , as they have much in common. However a true GDSS is characterised by being used by a group of people at the same time to support decision making. People use a common computer or network, and collaborate simultaneously.

Group Decision Support Systems can be categorised using the time-place paradigm.
Whether Synchronous or Asynchronous the matrix comprises
- same time same place systems
- same time different place systems
- different time different place
- different time same place

A number of commercial software products exist in this space.

List of Group Decision Support Systems.
  • AnyZing - Zing Technologies

  • GrouputerNet - Grouputer Solutions

  • Group Systems (was Ventana)

  • Meeting works


Significant research has gone into the impact and use of these technologies.


REFERENCES

  • Thoughts on a Group Support System

  • This is Chapter 10 of The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending the Machines in Our Midst, by Stephen L. Talbott. (Sebastopol CA: O'Reilly & Associates, 1995).

Hardcover, 502 pages. ISBN 1-56592-085-6

The University of Arizona developers claim a number of benefits for their electronic meeting system. In their own words, it:
; - enables all participants to work simultaneously (human parallel processing);
; - provides an equal opportunity for participation;
; - discourages behavior that can negatively impact meeting productivity;
; - enables larger group meetings which can effectively bring more information, knowledge, and skills to bear on the task;
; - permits the group to choose from a spectrum of structured or unstructured techniques and methods to perform the task;
; - offers access to external information; and
; - supports the development of an organizational memory from meeting to meeting.
On the other hand, they identify no risks or liabilities, although in a general discussion of electronic meeting systems they mention in passing the potential for depersonalization by the electronic medium, together with the necessarily limited "view" offered at any one time by a video display screen. Having listed these as theoretical concerns, they do not go anywhere with them.

The authors describe the guidelines and strategies for putting electronic meeting systems to work and present details and comparisons on two of the available less expensive software packages.




SEE ALSO



EXTERNAL LINKS


  • Harvard Business Review (HBR Reprint F0603D)

  • ;March 2006 Conversation column by Gardiner Morse: "Connecting Maverick Minds" ... Geoffrey West, president of the Santa Fe Institute , a unique research community

that innovates by mixing disciplines, talks about why Free Thinking matters.
  • 2006 HICSS-39 Thinklets (Collaboration techniques and processes)

  • --- 2001 HICSS-34 Mini-Track Topics (Collaboration systems and technology)

  • 1996-GSS HICSS-29 Mini-Track Topics (Group Support Systems)

  • --- 1996-GUE (Groupware User Experiences)



Other links (to be sorted / annotated)

  • http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/cmcl.html

  • http://www.ncst.ernet.in/vidyakash/reports/cmc-report.html#S2.