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Communication and
Computer Supported
Cooperative Work
Human Computer Interaction
Overview
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All computer systems, single user or multi-user,
interact with the work-groups and organizations
in which they are used
Need to understand normal human-human
communication
face-to-face communication involves eyes, face and
body
 conversation can be analysed to establish its detailed
structure
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Overview
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This can then be applied to text-based conversation,
which has
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reduced feedback for confirmation
less context to disambiguate utterances
slower pace of interaction
but is more easily reviewed
Group working is more complex than that of a single
person
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influenced by the physical environment
experiments are more difficult to control and record
field studies must take into account the social situation
Social nature of humans
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Humans are inherently social creatures
We live together, work together, learn together,
play together, etc.
Therefore, we need to develop interactive
systems that support and extend these kinds of
social interactions
Communication and collaboration
Face-to-face communication
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Most primitive and most subtle form of
communication
Often seen as the paradigm
for computer mediated communication
Face-to-face communication
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Transfer effects
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carry expectations into electronic media
People are adaptable – eg “over”
 But also expect they can use existing norms (eg: cultural)
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sometimes with disastrous results
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may interpret failure as rudeness of colleague
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e.g., personal space
video may destroy mutual impression of distance
happily the “glass wall” effect helps
Eye contact
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to convey interest and establish social presence
video may spoil direct eye contact
but poor quality video better than audio only
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Establishing context – focus of the conversation
Gestures and body language
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much of our communication is through our
bodies
gesture (and eye gaze) used for deictic reference
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Deictic – “directly pointing out” (oed.com)
head and shoulders video loses this
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So: close focus for eye contact
or wide focus for body language?
Back channels
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Alison:
Do you fancy that film, err[1] -`The Green' – um[2] –
it starts at eight.
Brian:
Great!
Not just the words!
Back channel responses from Brian at 1 and 2
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quizzical at 1
affirmative at 2
Back channels include:
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nods and grimaces
shrugs of the shoulders
grunts and raised eyebrows
Utterance begins vague then sharpens up just enough
Back channels II
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Restricting media restricts back channels
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Video … loss of body language
Audio … loss of facial expression
Half Duplex … lose most voice back channel responses
Text Based … nothing left!
Back channels used for turn-taking:
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Speaker offers the floor (fraction of a second gap)
Listener requests the floor (facial expression, small noise)
Grunts, ‘um's and ‘ah's, can be used by the:
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listener to claim the floor
speaker to hold the floor
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But often too quiet for half-duplex channels
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Trans-continental conferences - special problems
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lag can exceed the turn taking gap
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leads to a monologue!
Basic conversational structure
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Alison: Do you fancy that film
Brian: the uh (500 ms) with the black cat –”The Green whatsit”
Alison: yeah, go at uh (looks at watch 1.2 s) twenty to?
Brian: sure
Smallest unit is the utterance
Turn taking … utterances usually alternate
Basic conversational structure
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Simplest structure - adjacency pair
Adjacency pairs may nest;
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Brian: Do you want some gateau? (X)
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Alison: is it very fattening? (Y)
Brian: yes, very (Y)
Alison: and lots of chocolate? (Z)
Brian: masses (Z)
Alison: I'll have a big slice then. (X)
Structure is: B-x, A-y, B-y, A-z, B-z, A-x
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Inner pairs often for clarification
But, simple pairing is not always possible or useful
Context in conversation
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Utterances are highly ambiguous
We use context to disambiguate
Brian: (points) that post is leaning a bit
 Alison: that's the one you put in
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Context in conversation
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Two types of context:
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external context
reference to the environment
 e.g., Brian's “that” = the thing pointed to [deictic reference]
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internal context
reference to the previous conversation
 e.g., Alison's “that” = the last thing spoken of
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Context in conversation
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Often contextual utterances involve indexicals:
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that, this, he, she, it
These may be used for internal or external
context
Also descriptive phrases may be used:
external: “the corner post is leaning a bit”
 internal: “the post you mentioned”
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Common Ground
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Resolving context depends on meaning
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Conversation constantly negotiates meaning
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process called grounding
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Alison: So, you turn right beside the river.
Brian: past the pub.
Alison: yeah -
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participants must share meaning
so must have shared knowledge
Each utterance is assumed to be:
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relevant - furthers the current topic
helpful - comprehensible to listener
Focus and breakdown
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Context resolved relative to current dialogue focus
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Alison: Oh, look at your roses –
Brian: mmm, but I've had trouble with green fly.
Alison: they're the symbol of the English summer.
Brian: green fly?
Alison: no roses silly!
Tracing topics is one way to analyse conversation.
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Alison begins - topic is roses
Brian shifts topic to green fly
Alison misses shift in focus = breakdown
Focus and breakdown
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You can classify utterances by the task they perform in
the conversation
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Substantive
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Annotative
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– directly relevant to the development of the conversation
– points of clarification, elaboration etc
Procedural
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– talking about the process of collaboration itself
Focus and breakdown
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Alison is giving Brian directions, using a whiteboard
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Alison: you go along this road until you get to the river
Brian: do you stop before the river or after you cross it?
Alison: before
Brian: draw the river in blue and the road in black
Alison: So, you turn right beside the river
Brian: past the pub
Alison: yeah … is there another black pen? This one is running
dry.
NB: The final utterance is “procedural
technical” and indicates that the system
has become apparent to the participants
substantive
annotative
annotative
procedural
substantive
substantive
procedural
Breakdown
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Breakdown happens at all levels:
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topic, indexicals, gesture
Breakdowns are frequent, but:
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redundancy makes detection easy
(Brian cannot interpret “they're the symbol of the English summer”)
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people very good at repair
(Brain and Alison quickly restore shared focus)
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Electronic media may lose some redundancy
= breakdown more severe
breakdown
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Alison: Isn’t that beautiful
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Brian: the symmetry of the branches
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Points to a large male deer (stag) standing next to a tree
He thinks she pointed to the tree
Alison: how some people can dislike them I cannot understand!
Brian: Yes – the park rangers should shoot all those damn deer before they
kill the trees off for good!
Alison: (silence)
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NOTE: Brians reference to symmetrical branches MAY have sounded to Alison like a
reference to the stag’s antlers!
Speech-Act Theory
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A specific form of conversational analysis
Utterances characterised by what they do, they’re
acts
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e.g., “I'm hungry”
propositional meaning – hunger
 intended effect – “get me some food”
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Classic example: “I now pronounce you man &
wife”
Speech-Act Theory
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Basic conversational acts (illocutionary points):
Promises
 Requests
 Declarations
 Assertions
 Counters
 Reneges
 Withdrawals
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Speech-Act Theory
 Speech
 e.g.,
acts need not be spoken
silence often interpreted as
acceptance
Speech-Act Theory
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Generic patterns of acts can be identified:
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Conversation for action (CfA)
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Conversation for clarification (CfC)
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Usually embedded in CfA - to clarify the requested action
Conversation for possibilities (CfP)
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Seeks to obtain a specific request
Looking towards future actions
Conversation for Orientation (CfO)
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Building a shared understanding
Conversations
for action
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Circles represent ‘states’ in the conversation
Arcs represent utterances (speech acts)
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Simplest route 1-2-3-4-5:
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Alison: have you got the market survey on chocolate? [request]
Brian: sure [promise]
Brian: there you are [assert]
Alison: thanks [declare]
More complex routes possible, e.g., 1-2-6-3
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Alison: have you got – [request]
Brian: I've only got the summary figures [counter]
Alison: that'll do [accept]
Text based communication
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Most common media for asynchronous
groupware
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exceptions: voice mail, answer phone
Familiar medium, similar to paper letters
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but, electronic text may act as speech substitute!
Text based communication
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Types of electronic text:
Discrete: directed messages, no structure
 Linear: messages added (in temporal order)
 Non-Linear: hypertext linkages
 Spatial: two dimensional arrangement
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Text based communication
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Most obvious loss, no facial expression or body
language
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weak back-channels, so it is difficult to convey:
affective state - happy, sad, angry humorous
 illocutionary force - urgent, important, deferential
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Participants compensate by flaming and smilies ;-)
Grounding constraints
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Establishing common ground depends on
grounding constraints
Co-Temporality: - instant feedthrough
 Simultaneity: - speaking together
 Sequence: - utterances ordered
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Grounding constraints
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These constraints are often weaker in text based
communication than in face-to-face
conversation
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e.g., loss of sequence in linear text:
network delays or coarse granularity = overlap
Grounding constraints
1.
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3.
4.
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6.
Bethan: how many should be in the group?
Rowena: maybe this could be one of the 4 strongest reasons
Rowena: please clarify what you mean
Bethan: I agree
Rowena: hang on
Rowena: Bethan what did you mean?
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Message pairs 1&2 and 3&4 composed simultaneously
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i.e., lack of common experience
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Rowena: 2 1 3 4 5 6
Bethan: 1 2 4 3 5 6
Above shows breakdown of turn-taking
result of poor back channels
Maintaining context
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Recall context was essential for
disambiguation
Text loses external context,
hence deixis (cf: deictic) linking to shared
objects can help
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Both (2) and (3) are responses to (1)
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1. Alison: Brian's got some lovely
roses
2. Brian: I'm afraid they're covered in
green fly
3. Clarise: I've seen them, they're
beautiful
but the transcript suggests green fly
are beautiful
Hypertext can maintain ‘parallel’
conversations
Pace and Granularity
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Pace of conversation - the rate of turn taking
face-to-face - every few seconds
 telephone - half a minute
 email - hours or days
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face-to-face conversation is highly interactive
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If initial utterance is vague feedback gives cues for
comprehension
lower pace = less feedback = less interactive
Pace and Granularity
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Coping strategies attempt to increase granularity:
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eagerness - looking ahead in the conversation game
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Brian: Like a cup of tea? Milk or lemon?
multiplexing - several topics in one utterance
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Alison: No thanks. I love your roses.
The Conversation Game
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Conversation is like a game
Linear text follows one path through it
Participants choose the path by their utterances
Hypertext can follow several paths at once
Group dynamics
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Workgroups constantly change:
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in structure
in size
Several groupware systems have explicit roles
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But roles depend on context and time
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e.g., M.D. down a mine is under the authority of the foreman
e.g., a General can be under a Private during an Int. Briefing
and may not reflect duties
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e.g., subject of biography, author, but now writer
Group dynamics
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Social structure may change: democratic,
autocratic,
and group may fragment into sub-groups
Groupware systems rarely achieve this flexibility
Groups also change in composition
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new members must be able to ‘catch up’
Physical environment
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Face-to-face working radically affected by layout
of workplace
e.g., meeting rooms:
 recessed terminals reduce visual impact
 inward facing to encourage eye contact
 different social-power positions
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Traditional cognitive psychology is all in the
head
Physical environment
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Distributed cognition suggests we look to the world
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Thinking takes place in interaction with other people
and the physical environment
Implications for group work:
importance of mediating representations
 group knowledge greater than sum of parts
 design focus on external representation
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What is CSCW?
“…a generic term which
combines the understanding of
the way people work in groups
with the enabling technologies
of computer networking, and
associated hardware,
software, services and
techniques.” (Wilson, 1991)
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Any work that is being done between two or more
individual where the collaborative nature of the work
is supported by computer technology
A Lesson in CSCW History
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Paul Cashman and Irene Grief (1980s)
Workshop focusing on development of
computer systems to support people in their
work activities
A gathering of people from various disciplines
Shared an interest in how people work
 Understand how technology could support people’s
work
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A Lesson in CSCW History
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The term "computer-supported cooperative
work“ coined to describe this shared interest
First open CSCW conference in 1986 in Austin,
Texas with 300 people attending
Began as an effort by technologists to learn
from economists, social psychologists,
anthropologists, organizational theorists,
educators, and anyone else who could shed light
on group activity
Why CSCW?
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Build tools that support better communication
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Build tools that support better sharing of work tasks,
activities and processes
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E-mail, computer conferencing, voice messaging, Electronic
Meeting Systems (EMS)
Remote file sharing, shared drawing and editing tools, shared
whiteboards
Determine how to effectively build interfaces that support
group communication and sharing
Study existing workgroup collaboration in order to
determine how to best support it with technology
CSCW Basics
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Multidisciplinary
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Key issues
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Software design, organisational behaviour, psychology, communication
theory, anthropology, etc.
Group awareness
Multi-user interfaces
Concurrency control
Group communication and coordination
Shared information space
Focus is on how groups work and how technology can help
them work better
Field of study that deals with the design, adoption and use of
groupware and issues surrounding the use of groupware
Groupware
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Groupware is a term for applications written to support the collaboration of
several users.
Groupware can support different activities:
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It can be classified in several ways:
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direct interpersonal communication
ideas generation and decision making
sharing computer objects.
by where and when it happens
by the sort of information shared
by the aspects of cooperations supported
Implementing groupware is more difficult than single-user applications:
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because of network delays
because there are so many components to go wrong
because graphical toolkits assume a single user
Why Groupware?
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Rethinking business processes and functions
because
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People no longer need to work in the same place expertise
The cost of employee communication is significantly
lowered
Getting the status of work in progress is easier
Types of Groupware
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Electronic Mail
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Electronic meeting rooms
Desktop video conferencing
Electronic Whiteboards
Newsgroups
Chat Systems
Electronic Calendar
Management Systems
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Videoconferencing with
computer added features
Video switching to set up
subgroups of meeting
participants and add cooperative
features to the video exchange
Electronic Meetings
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Supports the asynchronous
communication of individuals
Media Spaces
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Shared Calendar Systems
Helps group members plan
meetings and share availability
information
Shared calendar systems tell
employees how busy someone is,
who they are working with, what
projects they are working on
Worksharing Systems
Work Monitoring Systems
Decision Support Systems
Workflow Systems
Multi-player Games
NetMeetin
g
E-mail
CS Meeting Rooms
Large Television
Two Rear Projection Screens
Terminals
embedded
in Table
Terminals
Conference
Table
Pull out keyboards
Capture Lab
SAMM
Video Conferencing
Shared
Calendars
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Think about shared
calendars…
Advantages?
Disadvantages?
Videophones…
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One of the earliest
technological
innovations
Numerous attempts by
companies to
introduce videophones
But failed each time…
Why??
Time/Location Matrix
Classify groupware by:
when the participants are working,
at the same time or not
where the participants are working,
at the same place or not
Common names for axes:
time:
synchronous/asynchronous
place:
co-located/remote
same
place
same
time
different
time
different
place
Time/Location Matrix
same
place
same
time
different
time
different
place
face-to-face
conversation
telephone
post-it note
letter
Designing
Groupware
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Involves understanding groups
and how people behave in
groups
Requires special consideration
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Differences between and within
groups
Homogeneity of users
Types of cooperation and
collaboration
Key decision makers
Stage of group development
Dynamic nature of groups
Adoption by group
Groupware Usability Testing
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Usability testing is often
significantly more
difficult with groupware
than with single-user
systems.
Windows 3000
General Issues in CSCW and
Groupware
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Adoption and acceptance
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Avoiding abuse
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Violations of social protocol
Privacy
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Critical mass of users
Desire to share information
Identification and accountability
Redistribution of power
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E.g. meetings
HCI design issues????
CSCW Success
& Failure
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Many of today’s CSCW systems have been
failures
Why do you think this is so?
 What do you think the major causes of these failures
are?
 What do you think can be done to overcome these
failures?
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Examples of successful systems?