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Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)

Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Thinking about groups, collaboration, and communication. CSCW. Computer Supported Cooperative Work HCI connotations CSCW individual use psychology. CSCW. Study of how people work together as a group and how technology affects this

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Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)

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  1. Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Thinking about groups, collaboration, and communication

  2. CSCW • Computer Supported Cooperative Work • HCI connotations CSCW • individual use • psychology

  3. CSCW • Study of how people work together as a group and how technology affects this • Support the social processes of work, often among geographically separated people

  4. Examples • The “system” becomes the medium, the moderator, rather than “just” a tool • There are now many collaborations, like: • Scientists collaborating on a technical issue • Authors editing a document together • Programmers debugging a system concurrently • Workers collaborating over a shared video conferencing application • Buyers and sellers meeting on eBay

  5. The second “C” • Group work not always cooperative or collaborative

  6. CSC “anything” • Not just about “work” anymore • Support the social processes of a group of people communicating or collaborating

  7. Examples • Awareness of people in your family, community, physical space... • Mobile communication • Online discussions, blogs • Sharing photos, stories, experiences • Recommender systems • Playing games

  8. Groupware • Software specifically designed • to support group working or playing • with cooperative requirements in mind • NOT just tools for communication • Groupware can be classified by • when and where the participants are working • the function it performs for cooperative work • Specific and difficult problems with groupware implementation

  9. sametime differenttime sameplace differentplace The Time/Space 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

  10. Applied to “traditional” technology sametime differenttime face-to-faceconversation, whiteboard sameplace post-it note differentplace letter phone call

  11. Face-to-face Post-it note E-meeting room Argument. tool Phone call Letter Video window,wall Email Applied to computer technology Time Synchronous Asynchronous Co-located Place Remote

  12. A More-fleshed Out Taxonomy A typical space/time matrix(after Baecker, Grudin, Buxton, & Greenberg, 1995, p.742)

  13. Styles of Systems • Computer-mediated communication • Meeting and decision support systems • Shared applications and tools

  14. Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) Aids • Examples • Email, Chats, virtual worlds • Desktop videoconferencing -- Examples: • CUSee-Me • MS NetMeeting • SGI InPerson

  15. CMC applications • Support a wide range of communication needs • Allow large number of people to quickly and easily communicate • Can be combined with other activities and systems • Lead to many new social conventions and issues

  16. Social implications • Less rich channels – fewer details, higher likelihood of misunderstanding • More anonymous • More autonomy, more ability to control message • Can be less intrusive • I’ll IM you before I stop by your office

  17. Food for thought… • Why aren’t videophones more popular? • How and when do you use Instant Messaging? How does this differ from email? • What communication technology do you still want?

  18. Meeting and Decision Support Systems • Examples • Corporate decision-support conference room • Provides ways of rationalizing decisions, voting, presenting cases, etc. • Concurrency control is important • Shared computer classroom/cluster • Group discussion/design aid tools

  19. Shared Applications and Tools • Shared editors, design tools, etc. • Want to avoid “locking” and allow multiple people to concurrently work on document • Requires some form of contention resolution • How do you show what others are doing?

  20. Social Issues • People bring in different perspectives and views to a collaboration environment • Goal of CSCW systems is often to establish some common ground and to facilitate understanding and interaction

  21. Turn Taking • There are many subtle social conventions about turn taking in an interaction • Personal space, closeness • Eye contact • Gestures • Body language • Conversation cues

  22. Geography, Position • In group dynamics, the physical layout of individuals matters a lot • “Power positions”

  23. Awareness • What is happening? • Who is there e.g. IM buddy list • What has happened… and why?

  24. Groupware implementation • Often more complicated • feedback and network delays • architectures for groupware • feedthrough and network traffic • toolkits, robustness and scaling

  25. local machine remote machine remote application screen feedback network 9 8 7 6 5 2 3 4 1 user types client server Feedback and network delays • At least 2 network messages + four context switches • With protocols 4 or more network messages

  26. Types of architecture • centralised – single copy of application and data • client-server – simplest case • master-slave special case of client-server • server merged with one client • replicated – copy on each workstation • also called peer-peer • + local feedback • race conditions

  27. Feedthrough & traffic • Need to inform all other clients of changes • Few networks support broadcast messages, so … n participants  n–1 network messages! • Solution: increase granularity • reduce frequency of feedback • but …poor feedthrough  loss of shared context • Trade-off: timeliness vs. network traffic

  28. Evaluation • Evaluating the usability and utility of CSCW tools is quite challenging • Need more participants • Logistically difficult • Apples - oranges • Often use field studies and ethnographic evaluations to assist • Groupware and Social Dynamics: Eight Challenges for Developers • By Jonathan Grudin (now at Microsoft) • http://www.ics.uci.edu/~grudin/Papers/CACM94/cacm94.html

  29. Groupware Challenges (Grudin) • Who does work vs. who gets benefit • Critical mass • prisoner’s dilemma

  30. More Grudin challenges • Social, political, and motivational factors • No “standard procedures”

  31. More Grudin challenges • Infrequent features • Groupware intuition

  32. More Grudin challenges • Managing acceptance • Evaluation is longer, more complicated, less precise

  33. Recommendations • Add group features to existing apps • Benefit all group members • Start with niches were application is highly needed • Consider evaluation and adoption early • Expect and plan for development and evaluation to take longer

  34. Example • TeamSpace: a meeting capture and access system

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