This chapter provides basic information about BSCW, information that you need to start cooperating with other users in shared workspaces.

Please bear in mind that some details that we describe here may be different or may not be available to you in some of your workspaces. This may be due to

• the role you fulfill (reduced access rights;)
• the level of proficiency with BSCW that you have chosen for yourself. At the Beginner level -- the default when you start using BSCW -- you will see fewer objects and actions than are shown here. Section 4.2.4 describes in detail how to personalize BSCW's Web-based user interface;
• the configuration of the BSCW server you use.

More advanced functions for setting up and managing shared workspaces are described in chapter 4.