Coordination is frequently associated with shared data spaces employing Linda coordination. But in practice, communication between parallel and distributed processes is carried out with message exchange patterns. What, actually, do shared data spaces contribute beyond these? In this paper we present a formal representation for a definition of shared spaces by introducing an “extensible tuple model”, based on existing research on Linda coordination, some Linda extensions, and virtual shared memory. The main enhancements of the extensible tuple model comprise: means for structuring of spaces, Internet- compatible addressing of resources, more powerful coordination capabilities, a clear separation of user data and coordination information, support of symmetric peer application architectures, and extensibility through programmable aspects. The advantages of the extensible tuple model (XTM) are that it allows for a specification of complex coordination patterns.