E‐collaboration: A look at past research and future challenges

The guest-editors of the first Special Issue on E-Collaboration provide an introduction to the issue. E-collaboration is broadly defined as collaboration among individuals engaged in a common task using electronic technologies. A brief history of the evolution of e-collaboration technologies is offered along with a discussion of research in the area. The paper concludes with a brief review of the contributions to the Special Issue and a look at one important future challenge for e-collaboration researchers, the challenge of theoretical summarization.