The term shared dataspace refers to the general class of models and languages in which the principal means of communication is a common, content-addressable data structure called a dataspace. Swarm is a simple language we have used as a vehicle for the investigation of the shared dataspace approach to concurrent computation. This paper reports on the progress we have made toward the development of a formal operational model for Swarm and a few of the language and programming implications of the model. The paper has four parts: an overview of the Swarm language, a presentation of a formal operational model, an examination of Swarm programming strategies via a series of related example programs, and a discussion of the distinctive features of the shared dataspace model
