Computer Supported Cooperative Work

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Agenda

• Introductions and course information

• CSCW overview

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Overview Class Information

• Some reading (pick up readings from Engineering Copy Center)

• Some lectures

• A lot of discussion

• One paper

• One programming assignment

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Using Online Tools

We will rely heavily on CSCW tools in this class

• EEE chat rooms will be open during class

• Office hours will be held online

• The wiki will be used to coordinate your groups and turn in assignments

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Your grades…

• Class participation 20%

• Quizzes 40%

• Programming assignment 20%

• Final 20%

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Class Website

• http://cleo.ics.uci.edu/Teaching/Fall08/153/index.html

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work)

• Study of how people work together as a group and how technology affects this practice.

• Support the social processes of work, often among geographically separated people.

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Examples

• 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 in eBay

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Research Focus

Often divided into two main areas• Systems – Groupware

– Designing software to facilitate collaboration

• Social component– Study of human and group dynamics in such

situations

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Classification by Time/Space

Time

Place

Same

Same

Different

Different

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Time/Space Taxonomy

Time

Place

Synchronous

Co-located

Asynchronous

Remote

Face-to-face Post-it note

Phone call Letter

E-meeting room Argument. tool

Video window,wallI

Email, newsgroup, CoWeb

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

A more-fleshed out taxonomy

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Classification by Function

• Cooperative work involves:– Participants who are working– Artifacts upon which they work

participants

artifacts of work

control andfeedback

P P

A

communication

understanding

direct

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Communication via an artifact

• Deixis– reference to work objects

• Feedthrough– communication through the artifact

control andfeedback

P P

A

communication

understanding

direct

deixis

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

What interactions does a tool support?

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 artifacts

– control and feedback with shared work objects

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

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

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Computer-mediated Communication Aids

• Email

• IM

• SMS

• Chats

• MUDs

• virtual worlds

• desktop videoconferencing

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Shared Applications and Tools

• 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?

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

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

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Turn Taking• There are many subtle social conventions about

turn taking in an interaction– Personal space, closeness– Eye contact– Gestures– Body language– Conversation cues

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Geography, Position

• In group dynamics, the physical layout of individuals matters a lot– “Power positions” (Stasko)

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

The Challenge of Engineering and Math: Anecdotes

• On a mandatory assignment involving a math class studying results from Engineering students’ simulations, 40% of math students accepted a zero rather than collaborate with engineers.

• Swiki team provided an Equation Editor in the CoWeb (A Wiki at GT) for an Engineering and a Math course to facilitate talking about equations. Not a single student even tried the Editor.

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Competition

• Student quotes on “Why didn’t you participate in CoWeb?”

“1) didn't want to get railed 2) with the curve it is better when your peers do badly”“since it is a curved class most people don’t want others to do well”

(Note: Students claimed that the course grades were “curved” even when there was none!)

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

Learned helplessness

• Student quotes:“I haven't posted about questions because I am confident that my answers are wrong.”“I thought I was the only one having problem understanding what was asked in the exam.”“Who am I to post answers?”“The overall environment for [this class] isn't a very help-oriented environment.”

Bottom line: For Collaboration to work in Engineering,must be explicit focus to make it work.

Informatics 153 – Fall 2008 – Gillian Hayes

For Thursday

• History of CSCW

• You know the drill… names and pictures on the wiki