Software that allows people to work together on the same documents and projects over local and remote networks. Lotus Notes is considered the father of "groupware," which was the first term coined to describe collaborative software. Also called "social software," collaborative software embraces the communications systems as well, including e-mail, videoconferencing, instant messaging and chat. See groupware, wiki, e-mail, instant messaging, chat, blog, data conferencing and videoconferencing.