Information management in distributed collaborative systems: The case of collaboration studio Francisco Antunes a , Paulo Melo b , Joa ˜o Paulo Costa b, * a Management and Economics Department, Beira Interior University, 6200-209 Covilha ˜, Portugal b Economics Faculty, Coimbra University, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal Available online 23 June 2005 Abstract This paper presents the Collaboration Studio (CS) system, its argumentation and data-structuring models and gives some insights for dealing with information divergence. The system allows discussions among a group of participants that includes a coordinator. The working mechanisms implemented within CS are perfectly transparent to the user, hid- ing implementation details, giving an appealing and user-friendly environment, and so users do not have to worry about patterns of data distribution, or the details of distribution management. CS shares characteristics with other collabo- ration computational tools, such as synchronous and asynchronous support and both group working spaces and a local working space. However, its main purpose differs in that, instead of trying to achieve a single document as the outcome of the joint work of several users, CS aims to achieve a broader objective, which is to register (and to demonstrate) the ‘‘path’’ used to obtain certain knowledge. Ó 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Collaborative systems; Groupware; Divergence management; Knowledge management 1. Introduction Information systems and information technol- ogy are leading to a global organizational change. Some of the more dramatic examples are those where entrepreneurs have created radical new busi- ness structures supported by the power of informa- tion technology and the arrival of new networked or virtual organizations (Boddy et al., 2002, p. 167). Information becomes the organizationÕs main power source, its main fuel and most impor- tant resource or input (Chiavenato, 2000), and the knowledge workers (Drucker, 1988) gain vital importance, as they constitute a scarce resource in the economy, moving freely within and between organizations, presenting new challenges, such as knowledge management and organizational memory (Conklin, 2001). 0377-2217/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2005.04.010 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: fantunes@ubista.ubi.pt (F. Antunes), pmelo@fe.uc.pt (P. Melo), jpaulo@fe.uc.pt (J.P. Costa). European Journal of Operational Research 177 (2007) 1385–1399 www.elsevier.com/locate/ejor