Computer support for meetings is becoming an increasingly common way to assist the group decision-making process. In face-to-face settings, we are not only seeing specially-built meeting rooms, but also cheap LED projectors that can display a computer's screen contents on a large screen. In asynchronous environments, electronic mail and computer conferencing enable on-going discussions between time and distance-separated people.
Technology changes the way in which people within a group behave, such as, de-individuation, the anonymity and loss of identity that occurs when people are submerged in a group. If de-individuation does exist, we would expect the social norms and constraints of people's behaviours to be weakened, which would have serious consequences on how decisions made by the group should be interpreted.
What is computer-mediated communication used for? Some systems are based upon the assumption that communication is related to a specific task or action which can be captured and formalised. Typical, asynchronous computer communication also has a large non-task component used for such things as social exchanges, expressing frustrations, and so on. It is argued that since variety and vigour of communication is important to successful collaboration, the underlying technology should be flexible enough to support informal as well as formal talk.