Computer-Supported Cooperative Work · CSCW “CSCW is an umbrella term allowing people from a variety of disciplines to come together and discuss issues without any common ground

stanford hci group / cs376

http://cs376.stanford.eduJeffrey Heer · 14 April 2009

Computer-Supported Cooperative Work

Administrivia

Research project abstract drafts, due this Friday, April 17 @ 7am

ContentResearch QuestionHypothesisMethodologyStudy Recruitment Plan

1 paragraph ~1 sentence for each point

CSCW

“How collaborative activities and their coordination can be supported by means of computer systems”

- Grudin ‘88

“The study and theory of how people work together, and how the computer and related technologies affect group behavior”

- Greenberg ‘91

CSCW

“CSCW is an umbrella term allowing people from a variety of disciplines to come together and discuss issues without any common ground as to the concept of CSCW, other than the very loose idea that it was somehow about the use of computers to support activities of people working together”

- Bannon ‘88

Key Concerns

(a) the distinctive qualities of co-operative work processes, and how they are affected by technological mediation

(b) questions of design, i.e. how to mould computer technology to fit into and support work processes, often resulting in ‘groupware’ systems

GroupwareGroupware denotes the technology that people use to work together

“systems that support groups of people engaged in a common task (or goal) and that provide an interface to a shared environment.”

CSCW studies the use of groupware“CSCW is the study of the tools and techniques of groupware as well as their psychological, social, and organizational effects.”

Key Concerns



Key Concerns



Qualities of co-operative work?

What factors are important to consider when designing collaborative interfaces?

space

tim

e

asynchronousco-located

synchronousco-located

asynchronousremote

synchronousremote

projectors

ambient displays

virtual workspaces

webemail

IMtable-top interaction

whiteboards

usenet

telephoneteleconference

snail-mailpost-it notes

tagging

flickr

blogs

youtube

graffiti

google earth

distributed visualization

collocated distributeda

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s courtesy of marc rettig


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s The DesignersThe Designers’’ OutpostOutpost


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space

time

asynchronous / remoteDigital Media SharingGroupware CalendarsVotingMS Word CollaborationInstant messaging

asynchronous / co-locatedProject wallsMeeting room schedulesPost-It notesPublic displays

synchronous / co-locatedLarge displays / whiteboardsTabletop interactionSpectator interfaces

synchronous / remoteNetworked gamingVideo conferencingInstant messaging

ISSUES IN CSCW DESIGN

“Look at that spike.”

“Look at the spike for Turkey.”

“Look at the spike in the middle.”

Common GroundCommon Ground: the shared understanding enabling conversation and collaborative action[Clark & Brennan ’91]

Principle of Least Collaborative Effort: participants will exert just enough effort to successfully communicate.[Clark & Wilkes-Gibbs ’86]

Reference and Deixis

Various forms of reference (Clark 2003, Brennan 2005)

General (“north by north west”)

Definite (“meet at Hoover Tower”)

Detailed (“get the blue ball”)

Deixis (“that one” while pointing)

Often combined together (gesture + speech)How to effectively capture and communicate

references in computer-mediated communication?

Depicting social activity

Read & Edit Wear, Hill et al 1992

Awareness

An understanding of the activities of others, which provides a context for your own activity. [Dourish & Belotti ‘92]

Ensure work is relevant to the group’s activity View the activities of others (e.g., live or via history)Coordination via shared artifactsInfo explicitly generated or passively collected?

Workflow

Documents carry meta-data that describes their flow through the organization:Document X should be completed by Jill by 4/15Doc X should then be reviewed by Amit by 4/22Doc X should then be approved by Ziwei by 4/29Doc X should finally be received by Don by 5/4

The document “knows” its route. With the aid of the system, it will send reminders to its users, and then forward automatically at the time limit.

Identity and Reputation

Respondents on a therapy discussion forum:[email protected]@hotmail.com

Others things being equal, who are you more likely to trust? In what contexts?

Presentation of Self [Goffman ‘59]

Expressions given (e.g., spoken words) vs. given off (e.g., wavering of voice)

Conventional signalsLow-cost signals that are easy to fakee.g., wearing a Gold’s Gym t-shirt

Assessment signalsMore reliable signals that are hard to fakee.g., having large muscles

CSCW SYSTEMS

Knowledge repositories

AnswerGarden (Ackerman): database of commonly-asked questions that grows automatically.

User poses question as a text query:System responds with matches from the database.If user isn’t satisfied, system attempts to route

query to an expert on the topic.Expert receives query, answers it, adds answer to

the database.

Extending email

There is a lot of research on “email++”Automatic organizationTask managementOther functions: contacts, reminders

Multimedia email: Can includesound, video, images.

Only occasionally usefulMay be important for developing economies.

Extensible Groupware: Lotus Notes

Notes is a product that combines standard office software (email, calendar, contacts etc.) with a scriptable database backend.

Easy to create new apps: PERT charts, novel workflow, custom shared authoring…

“most successful groupware system to date”

Synchronous Groupware

Desktop Conferencing (MS Netmeeting)

Electronic Meeting Rooms (Access Grid)

Media Spaces (Xerox PARC)

Instant Messaging

Video

Eye contact problems:Offset from camera to screen“Mona Lisa” effect

Gesture has similar problems: trying pointing at something across a video link.

MultiView – Nguyen & Canny

Directed vs. Non-directed Video

Distance WorkSharing experiences is very important for mutual understanding in team work (attribution theory).

So context-baseddisplays (portholes)work well.

Video shows roomsand hallways, not just people or seats.

Sound

Good for one-on-one communication

Bad for meetings. Spatial localization is normally lost. Add to network delays and meeting regulation is very hard.

Turn-taking, back-channelingIn a face-to-face meeting, people do a lot of self-management.

Preparing to speak: lean forward, clear throat, shuffle paper.

Unfortunately, these are subtle gestures which don’t pass well through today’s technology.

Network delays make things much worse.

Social Issues

Can these technologies supplant human-human interaction?

can you send a “handshake” or a “hug”how does intimacy survive?

Are too many social cues lost? facial expressions and body language for enthusiasm, disinterest, angerwill new cues develop? e.g., :)

Is face-to-face the ideal?

Kiesler and Sproull findings:Participants talk more freely in email (than F2F).Participation is more equal in email.More proposals for action via email. Reduced effects of status/physical appearance.

ButLonger decision times in email.More extreme remarks and flaming in email.

Field of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) studies such “media effects”

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