A workgroup application with contextual clues. The workgroup application allows any one of multiple participants to provide input, such as commands to edit a document or speech. The effects of the input are presented to other participants in a workgroup session in conjunction with a participant indicator. As one example, each participant may control a cursor that is displayed on the display screens of workstations in a network hosting a workgroup application. Each cursor may be displayed in conjunction with a participant icon that follows the cursor on the display screens. Contextual clues may also be provided by modulating visual properties of the participant icons in response to activity level.