Transcript Computer-Supported Cooperative Work

Computer-Supported
Cooperative Work
(CSCW)
What is CSCW?
Two or more people
 doing something together
 using various computer tools to get
the job done
 using computer mediated
communication (CMC)

CSCW & CMC (computer-mediated communication)
Is electronic communication different
from other modes of communication?
 What is the impact on organizations?
 How does it affect decision making?
 What about privacy?
 How to support remote collaboration?
 Social aspects?

Multimedia communication



Communication is both verbal and nonverbal
Conversation is shaped by the medium.
Different media have different affordances and
different grounding costs.


Affordances enable or support different things.
Costs can be problematic and can influence people’s
choice of medium.
Multimedia communication

Next: an example of people doing the
same task, but
 using
speech only, vs.
 using both speech and visual information


Consider: How does the medium shape
communication?
Effects of visual evidence on grounding
Director & Matcher had copies of the same map
The task was to get M’s car icon aligned with D’s
Half the time, D could see M’s car on D’s map
(visual plus verbal evidence)
Half the time, D couldn’t see M’s car (verbal evidence
only)
Measure: convergence over time
(Brennan, 1990)
Example 1: D cannot see M’s icon
D: #you're in the upper far far upper
corner of the screen,
it says Sea
Street?
M: *yah*
D: *way* at the top?
M: yeh [icon in correct location]
D: you're you're just a little bit on the
rooad, and the
corner of your car is touching A of
Sea.
but you're mostly off the road.
the road is to your right.
just a- touching *the car.*
M: *the road* is to the right of the
car?
D: put the roadput the car right on the road
and you'll overlap me.
M: ok.
Example 2: D sees what M is doing
D: ok,
now we're gonna go over to
M-Memorial Church?
and park right in Memor- [icon in correct location]
right there.
that's *good.*
M: *that's* rude,
to park in the church.
D: hheh heh
Visual co-presence & installments
D: ok
now we're goin:g-umm
northeast?
uh
wait
stop
ok,
that body of water
there's uh
Snoot
what'uz that say?
Shoot
Flying?
M: yup
D: Hill Road?
ok,
you wanna park right on thee
Fly.
right there.
good.
With verbal evidence only:
With verbal evidence only:
Presentation
phase
Acceptance
phase
With visual and verbal evidence
With visual and verbal evidence
“Ok, right there!”
The point:

Grounding is much easier in a visual task when
one person can see what the other is doing


This is because the Matcher can provide evidence of
understanding while the Director is speaking (so the
presentation phase is done in parallel with the
acceptance phase).
Also, one person (the Matcher) adjusts to what the
other (the Director) can see.
In ordinary communication, the medium
people choose is affected by their purpose

When might you choose the phone, vs.
face-to-face, vs. email, vs. texting?






Checking in with your parents
Checking in with your best friend
Asking someone for a favor
Turning down a request for a favor from a casual
acquaintance
Asking a professor for an extension
Asking your TA for help with a problem
Some affordances of media:
Copresence
 Visibility
 Audibility
 Interactivity
 Simultaneity

Reviewability
 Revisibility

(Clark & Brennan, 1991)
Grounding in Media - some costs
Start-up costs
 Production costs
 Reception costs
 Understanding
costs

Display costs
 Repair costs
 Turn-taking costs
 Face management
costs

2 Dimensions of CSCW:
PLACE
Same
Different
(co-located)
Same
(synchronous)
TIME
Different
(asynchronous)
(remote)
A. Same time, same place
Face-to-face communication
 2 people in front of the same computer
 Electronically equipped meeting room
 Computerized classroom (like this one)

B. Same time, different place
Telephone
 Text teleconferencing
 Video teleconferencing
 Shared editors (audio channel added)
 Active badge technology

C. Different time, same place
Leaving a note on the fridge
 Project scheduling and coordination
tools
 Version control

D. Different time, different place
Letters
 Email
 Bboards
 Electronic journals

Dimensions of CSCW:
PLACE
Same
Different
(co-located)
Same
(synchronous)
TIME
Different
(asynchronous)
(remote)
Advances in email
Automated filtering (mail agents)
 Multimedia and attachments
 Structured messages

 Information
Lens (Malone)
– Template-based messages of different types
– Enables automatic filtering
 The
Coordinator (Flores & Winograd)
– Made speech acts explicit (PRS Ch. 4,130-133)
– e.g., acknowledge, promise, counter-offer,
decline, free-form (used most often!)
Email & organizations
(Sara Kiesler)
Egalitarian
 Broadcastable (pros and cons)
 Recipient may be ambiguous
 Blurs differences: formal & informal
 Flaming
 Anonymity
 One of several communication modes

Meeting and Decision Support

Argumentation tools
 Asynchronous,

Meeting rooms
 Synchronous,

co-located
co-located
Shared drawing surfaces
 Synchronous,
remote
Electronic whiteboards
Needed: “floor control” (whose turn is it?)
 Who is writing?
 How to point?
 Anonymity - pros and cons

Video teleconferencing

Advantages
 Is
a picture worth a thousand words?
 Facial expression, body language, etc.
 Know who is talking in a multi-person mtg
 Family get-togethers, etc.
Video teleconferencing

Issues or disadvantages
 Hard
to frame large groups, locate camera
 Video window/wall - can’t walk to camera
 Eye-contact is difficult
 Picturephone was an invasion of privacy
 Requires lots of bandwidth
 Difficulty in feeling co-present
What is video really useful for, anyway?
When is video useful?
To see the same document or screen
 Live, broadcast lectures
 To see the same object in the world

 Kraut’s
VR repair application (WYSIWIS)
Maybe, to keep up with friends & relatives...
Awareness mechanisms


Video windows
Shared representations (dynamic or static)





If dynamic, lets you monitor task progress
Avatars representing real people (vs. agents)
Notification of individuals logging in or out
Texting and interactivity
Facebook



“Meeting” new people vs. ability to find long-lost people
Additional info about status or state
Privacy issues
Some conclusions:



The affordances of the medium shape the
conversation that takes place.
The media people use for communicating
shape their relationships.
The effects of media on relationships shape
organizations.