Download ppt - Lecture 9: Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Groupware

Lecture 9: Computer Supported Cooperative Work &

Groupware

Dr. Xiangyu WANG

Acknowledgement: Figen Gul for partial notes

Agenda Today

• 2:00-3:00 Lecture• 3:00-3:45 Group 1-5 work on “Workstation

design” in Secondlife with Taiwan Student for ONLY 30 minutes

• 3:45-4:30 Group 6-10 work on “Workstation design” in Secondlife with Taiwan Student for ONLY 30 minutes

• Note: each student should give AUD $5.7 to Irene NOW for the use of Secondlife

What is CSCW?

• ‘In its most general form, CSCW examines the possibilities and effects of technological support for humans involved in collaborative group communication and work processes’. (Bowers, J. and S. Benford 1991)

• Greif defines CSCW as ‘computer-assisted coordinated activity such as communication and problem solving carried out by a group of collaborating individuals’ (Greif 1988).

What is CSCW?

• What is CSCW– The field was coined in the 1980th by researchers

from computer science, information science and social science.

– Interdisciplinary field – where researchers are from various fields contribute with “different perspectives and methodologies for acquiring knowledge of group work and for suggesting how the group’s work could be supported”.

– E.g., computer scientists, social scientists, psychologist, cognitive scientists, etc.

• Two sides of CSCW: – Group work and social phenomena. – The technology and computer hardware and software

CSCW

• CSCW should be conceived as an endeavor to understand the nature and characteristics of cooperative work with the objective of designing adequate computer-based technologies.

• CSCW is a research area addressing questions like the following: – What are the specific characteristics of cooperative work

as opposed to work performed by individuals in seclusion? – How can computer-based technology be applied to

enhance cooperative work relations? – How should designers approach the complex and delicate

problems of designing systems that will shape social relationships?

– And so forth. • The focus is to understand, so as to better support,

cooperative work.

Groupware

• Definition (Ellis et al. 1991)– Groupware are computer-based systems that

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

Groupware

• Groupware can support different activities– Direct interpersonal communication– Ideas generation and decision making– Sharing computer objects

CSCW v.s. Groupware

• CSCW v.s. Groupware– Groupware is the product (program) resulting

from the research done in the CSCW field.

– CSCW as a research field will persist, because it addresses larger questions about the design and refinement of groupware.

CSCW v.s. Groupware

• CSCW:– Focus on

• workplace activities,• organizational impact of technology,• co-evolution of the technology and the groups using it,

– Interdisciplinary: Social scientists and technologists.

• Groupware:– Focus on

• computer systems,• the design of the computer systems,

– Mainly a technical discipline: technologists

Groupware classificationClassification by support functions – 3C

model

Design of Groupware

• Important design aspects– Sociological

• Effect of the computer support on position and evaluation of team members.

– Psychological• Effect of the computer support on individual

behavior

• Time/Space matrix– When and where the participants are working

• People-Artifact Framework– The function it performs for cooperative work

Classifying Groupware

More taxonomy

Baecker, Grudin, Buxton, & Greenberg, 1995, p.742

The COLAB meeting room, Xerox PARC http://www2.parc.com/istl/members/stefik/colab.htm

•Support decision making process

– dedicated computer-based conference facility

– real time large group support (5-50)

– embeds a structured meeting process

•Typical function– explore unstructured

problems– brainstorm ideas– generate ideas– voting…

Group Decision Rooms

– device characteristics– social affordances of

tables/wall

Shared Table / Wall Displays

InteracTable and Dynawall, From the GMD Darmstadt web site on I-Land

From the GMD Darmstadt web site on I-Land

• computer-augmented room elements– integrated desk/wall displays for collaboration– Inter-operation between devices

Roomware

More taxonomy


• Desktop conferencing

– bandwidth/latency issues

Video / Audio conferencing

From Saul Greenberg

• Casual interaction– awareness to

light-weight conversations

Instant messengers

• Space for meeting and interacting with people

Chat rooms/MUDS/Virtual worlds

More taxonomy


from Multimedia Fliers, Churchill, Nelson, Denoue, Communites and Technoligies 2003

• Post information from various sources to public place

Community Bulletin Boards

More taxonomy


Common calendar

http://www.americusglobal.com/images/groupcalender.gif

• Email

• common calendar– meeting scheduling– resource use

Wikis

• Using wikis

More taxonomy


Meeting Rooms

Veterinary Report Vol 26, 1 Winter 2002 http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/vetreport/winter2002/technology.html

Meeting roomsMeeting roomsSupport face to face groupsSupport face to face groups

People-Artifact Framework

participants

artefacts of work

control andfeedback

P P

A

communication

understanding

direct

• Cooperative work involves:– Participants (P) who are working– Artefacts (A) upon which they work

Dix, Finlay, Abowd & Beale Dix, Finlay, Abowd & Beale Human Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed. Prentice Hall. 1998Human Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed. Prentice Hall. 1998

participants

artefacts of work

control andfeedback

P P

A

communication

understanding

direct

meeting and decision support systems

– common understanding

computer-mediated communication

– direct communication between participants

shared applications and artefacts

– control and feedback with shared work objects

What interactions does a tool support?

People-Artifact Framework

• Meeting and Decision

• Communication

• Share artefacts

Meeting and decision support systems

• Participants must establish a common understanding about the task they perform and generate ideas.

Computer-mediated communication

Using blog for communication

participants

artefacts of work

control andfeedback

P P

A

communication

understanding

direct

meeting and decision support systems

– common understanding

computer-mediated communication

– direct communication between participants

shared applications and artefacts

– control and feedback with shared work objects

Computer-mediated Communication and shared/artefacts


Synchronous remoteSynchronous remote

communicationcommunication

Video-based systemsVideo-based systems

Shared drawing surfacesShared drawing surfaces

synchronous remote synchronous remote design meetingsdesign meetings


Shared applications and artefacts

• The focus of sharing is the participants’ work domain itself – Include the computers people are using– Applications on those computers– The documents they are working with

•Share unaltered single user applications

Shared Screens/Windows

Richardson, T., Stafford-Fraser, Q., Wood, K. and Hopper, A.

Virtual Network Computing. IEEE Internet Computing. Vol. 2, No. 1. p33-39. January/February, 1998.

Shared applications and artefacts

Shared applications

Second LifeDesign World•Sharing a design object