Over on the FXPAL blog, Gene and I added the 2nd of a series of posts mapping out the collaborative information seeking systems domain. Here is an excerpt:
When we view collaboration from the IR perspective, it becomes clear that collaboration does not merely refer to a decision to work together. Rather, it refers to a decision to work together on an information need. Users who have actively and consciously decided to work with each other on a specific information need are explicitly(intentionally) engaged in collaborative information seeking. A user whose information seeking activities are influenced (for the better, of course) by others, but without the user’s active involvement, is implicitly or non-intentionally collaborating with others.