Transcript Groupware and Computer Supported Cooperative Work

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 classification
Classification 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
Classifying Groupware
• Time/Space matrix
– When and where the participants are working
• People-Artifact Framework
– The function it performs for cooperative work
More taxonomy
Baecker, Grudin, Buxton, & Greenberg, 1995, p.742
Group Decision Rooms
•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…
The COLAB meeting room, Xerox PARC
http://www2.parc.com/istl/members/stefik/colab.htm
Shared Table / Wall Displays
– device characteristics
– social affordances of
tables/wall
InteracTable and Dynawall,
From the GMD Darmstadt web site on I-Land
Roomware
• computer-augmented room elements
– integrated desk/wall displays for collaboration
– Inter-operation between devices
From the GMD Darmstadt web site on I-Land
More taxonomy
Baecker, Grudin, Buxton, & Greenberg, 1995, p.742
Video / Audio conferencing
• Desktop conferencing
– bandwidth/latency
issues
From Saul Greenberg
Instant messengers
• Casual interaction
– awareness to
light-weight
conversations
Chat rooms/MUDS/Virtual
worlds
• Space for meeting
and interacting with
people
More taxonomy
Baecker, Grudin, Buxton, & Greenberg, 1995, p.742
Community Bulletin Boards
• Post information from
various sources to
public place
from Multimedia Fliers, Churchill, Nelson,
Denoue, Communites and Technoligies 2003
More taxonomy
Baecker, Grudin, Buxton, & Greenberg, 1995, p.742
Common calendar
• Email
• common calendar
– meeting scheduling
– resource use
http://www.americusglobal.com/images/groupcalender.gif
Wikis
• Using wikis
More taxonomy
Baecker, Grudin, Buxton, & Greenberg, 1995, p.742
Meeting Rooms
Meeting rooms
Support face to face groups
Veterinary Report Vol 26, 1 Winter 2002
http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/vetreport/winter2002/technology.html
People-Artifact Framework
• Cooperative work involves:
– Participants (P) who are working
– Artefacts (A) upon which they work
understanding
participants
P
direct
communication
P
control and
feedback
artefacts of work
A
Dix, Finlay, Abowd & Beale
Human Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed. Prentice Hall. 1998
What interactions does a tool support?
meeting and decision
support systems
– common understanding
understanding
participants
P
direct
communication
P
control and
feedback
artefacts of work
A
computer-mediated
communication
– direct communication
between participants
shared applications
and artefacts
– control and feedback
with shared work objects
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
Computer-mediated Communication
and shared/artefacts
meeting and decision
support systems
– common understanding
understanding
participants
P
direct
communication
P
control and
feedback
artefacts of work
A
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 remote
communication
Video-based systems
Computer-mediated Communication
and shared/artefacts
Shared drawing surfaces
synchronous remote
design 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
Shared Screens/Windows
•Share unaltered single user
applications
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 Life
Design World
•Sharing a design object