ABSTRACT
When people employ text and graphic objects in communication, those objects have meaning under a system of interpretation, or visual language. Visual languages for cooperation are graphical representations for group work such as brainstorming or cooperative task structuring. A visual language for cooperation can give group members a way to visualize an aspect of group work so they can better understand and perform it. If a computer system could interpret expressions in such a language, then it could participate in the group’s work. This chapter describes a computer graphics system that can process visual languages for expressing the structure of group work, thus providing a way for computers to understand and assist intellectual teamwork.
