Remote and hybrid forms of collaboration have become widespread at the latest since the onset of
the COVID-19 crisis. Even before the pandemic, such work settings were becoming increasingly
important and have found their way into a large number of different domains and fields of activity in
recent years. In hybrid collaboration, unlike in fully distributed ("remote") settings, only some of the
people involved are usually not on site together. However, hybrid collaboration does not only
describe the partial local distribution of the participants. It also includes the use of a wide variety of
tools, such as the use of devices and software for video conferencing and other types of
communication or data and information exchange, as well as the formation and interaction of
subgroups within a team.
Although hybrid forms of collaboration have enormous potential for increasing efficiency in many
areas of work, for example by eliminating longer travel times while necessary activities can continue
to be performed on site, they also entail a variety of new challenges. In particular, the equal
involvement of external parties in the interaction of those on site can often only be guaranteed to a
limited extent.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, extensive experience with fully distributed collaboration was gained
in many areas (for example, during a legally mandated lockdown), and hardware equipment was
acquired that fundamentally enables remote communication among collaborating individuals. Many
companies as well as educational institutions now want to exploit the positive experience gained
during this period for the time after the acute pandemic and combine it with the advantages of on-
site collaboration. This will open up numerous new areas of application for hybrid collaboration in
the future.
The HYCOS project aims at exploring the "spaces" in which hybrid collaboration occurs. A hybrid
collaboration space encompasses the entire context of a hybrid collaboration with all associated
physical and virtual elements. In the context of the HYCOS project, 1) a scientific definition for the
term Hybrid Collaboration Space is established, 2) requirements for such a space are systematically
collected through empirical studies, 3) a modular prototype of a hybrid collaboration space is
implemented and 4) systematically evaluated. From the findings, 5) generalizable design and
implementation guidelines for hybrid collaboration spaces are derived.
The HYCOS project is conducted at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, School of
Informatics, Communications and Media in Hagenberg and led by Dr. Mirjam Augstein, Professor for
Personalized and Collaborative Systems.