Collaborative Modeling in Software Engineering

The topic of collaborative modeling has long been relevant in software. Collaborative facilities are part and parcel of modeling tools, and every day hundreds of thousands of developers engage in collaborative modeling of some sort. This theme issue contains four articles spanning a variety of areas in collaborative modeling. The first article offers a somewhat classic approach to handling collaborative-design conflicts. The second one addresses securely sharing only parts of a collaborative model. The third discusses whether distance still matters in collaborative design. The fourth introduces a timely approach to collaborative modeling through chatbots.