Lightweight Collaboration

Lisa M. Smith

Michelle Chang

Pratik Dave

CPSC 672 Topic 4 Presentation

Lightweight Collaboration

lightweight

– “without much user involvement” [dourish and bly, 1992]

lightweight communication

– impromptu

– quick/easy to initiate

– short/informal

– multiple/distinct occurrences lightweight interaction

– two-way (dyadic)

example systems & issues

– dyadic

• Montage 1994, Sunsoft

• TeleNotes 1997, Lotus Development Corporation

– distributed work groups

• Portholes 1992, Xerox EuroPARC/PARC

– multiple users

• CWB 2002, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories

Lightweight Collaboration: systems and issues

dyadic– Montage [tang et al.]

• hallway metaphor

• lightweight audio/video glances

• accessibility modes

– do not disturb, locked, out of office, other

• 3-way support

• results

– similar to face-to-face or phone

– provide awareness

– TeleNotes [whittaker et al.]• presentation metaphor• stack of stickies per topic

– Notes database• lightweight features

– conversational threading, one-way drop, quick connection, context preservation and regeneration, shared objects

• results– quicker to start, “quickfire”

exchanges, personal reminding and notes for others

Lightweight Collaboration: systems and issues (cont.)

distributed work groups– Portholes [dourish and bly]

• joint management of distributed data space by cooperating servers

• iterative design/development/use

• broadcast mode

– all users have access to all information

• results

– shared awareness

– “sense of community”

multiple users– CWB: Collaborative Web

Browsing [esenther]

• multiple users synchronize views of web pages while talking on phone

• “one-click collaboration”

– shared pointer

• results

– ‘casual collaboration’ between arbitrary users

– unobtrusive

– avoids pre-collaboration and trust requirements

Awareness

awareness– gives daily view of work

environment• who’s around?• what activities are going on?• who’s talking to whom?

– helps maintain relationships• informal interactions• spontaneous connections• development of shared

cultures– co-located groups– distributed groups at multiple

sites

issues

– how awareness information affects/supports collaborative work?

– what awareness information is meaningful and how to provide it?

– how to effectively present useful awareness information in user interface design?

further information/overview

– see [liechti, 2000]

Peripheral Awareness

peripheral awareness– systems providing awareness

information via software residing in user’s peripheral attention

– how systems present information without requiring focus of attention

• calm technology (Weiser and Brown)

– “move easily from the periphery of our attention, to the center, and back”

– Natalie Jeremijenko’s “Dangling String”

example system– Sideshow [cadiz et al, 2002] ,

Microsoft Research

• internet or intranet information; screen real estate; launch point for accessible (further) information

• tickets on side bar of primary display

• results

– “stay aware of important information without switching away from primary task”

Situational Awareness

situational awareness– also referred to as peripheral

awareness

– continually monitoring variety of inputs (auditory, visual, tactile), instantly shifting attention if required

– safety or time critical systems

example

– air traffic control ethnographic studies: role of paper flight strips

• [mackay, 1999], University of Aarhus

• this is a “honed skill”: passive and active

– unobstrusively monitor evolving situation

– process multiple threads

– extract information as needed

• off-duty team members “chatting”

• students must gradually learn

Situational Awareness:research

framework for cooperative problem solving

– airline operations [mccoy et al.],

– situation

• real-time information

• background knowledge

– cooperation (knowledge needed for decision-making)

• shared understanding of local situations

• interpersonal bonds (trust)

– results:

• level of detail needed to maintain situational awareness varies on circumstances

safety or time critical systems, further information

– military • see [kruse, 2000], University of

Arizona

– emergency service work (CAD) • see [pettersson et al., 2002],

Sweden, Manchester Metropolitan University

Mobile Ad hoc Collaboration

Mobile Ad hoc Collaboration

Spans geographic separation and time Challenges:

1. Poor Wireless bandwidth networks

2. Out of service area

3. Pre-defined group doesn’t exist

4. Creating an active seamless link

5. Other user already engaged or mobile device switched off

Hocman Mattias Esbjornsson and Mattias OstergrenMobility, Interactive Institute, Stockholm Sweden Ad hoc collaboration among motorcyclists HTTP peer to peer application Share audio, images, HTML documents on a

handheld device Maintains profiles of motorcyclists in the

vicinity

RoamWare

Mikael Wiberg, Umea University, Sweden Seamless interaction in between mobile meetings 3 components: Desktop, PDA, Radio

1. PDA : records meeting interactions, times, participants

2. Radio: finds names & emails of all participants in the vicinity

3. Desktop: allows user to sync and refine notes on office PC.

Call-Kiosk

Thomas Rst, Patrick Brandmeier, Gerd Herzog, Elisabeth Andre, German Research Center for AI, Germany

Simulates the function of a tourist office Information delivered as WML pages

stored on serverClient downloads pages to mobile device

WebSplitter

Richard Han, Veronique Perret, Mahmoud Naghshineh, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, NY

Form of collaborative web browsing

Different access privileges to different parts of the same web page

Creates partial views depending on user login

Uses a server-side XML metadata policy file

Instant Messaging and Chat

General Issues with Instant Messaging

Synchronous/Interactive– immediate context– less likelihood of misunderstandings

Can be used asynchronously– conversation at slower pace throughout

day– flexible for globally/temporally

distributed groups Highly visible alerting mechanism

– higher probability of response– reasonable deniability– stays on screen, low cost for response

Informal/Coordinate social activity– contact with family/friends– useful in scheduling alternate media

contact

Awareness/Socially Translucent Interfaces

– e.g. door with sign versus glass window

– easier to conform to social conventions

– awareness of availability serves as a cue for opportunistic interaction

Lightweight– ease of initial setup

– ease of ongoing interaction

– continual presence

– swift exchanges

– easy to locate colleagues/respond

Large-scale Problems to Adoption:– privacy issues

– critical mass required

Problems with IM/Chat Communication

Lack of Recognition Lack of Intention Indicators

Typing Inefficiency Diminished effectiveness for slower

typists

Lack of status information Lack of context

From: “Alternative Interfaces for Chat” Vronay, Smith, and Drucker (UIST ’99)

Babble

IBM (CHI ’99)– Part of “Loops” project

(“keep me in the loop”)

– See level of participation - social cues

– See history – cues from content

– Social proxy – sense of audience and activity

Flow Chat

Microsoft Research (UIST ’99) Address lack of status and typing

issues User Interface issues (scrolling)

provided less than stellar feedback

Threaded Chat

Microsoft Research (CSCW ’00)

Oriented toward collaborative decision making

User’s pleased with quality of decision, but interface issues (awareness of new messages) problematic

Reach Out

IBM Haifa (CSCW ’02) Addresses issue of peer

support IT & Internet produce

cultural obstacles to knowledge sharing

Newsgroups and mailing lists require active participation versus push technology

IM in the Workplace

Adoption difficulties

– Email and telephone responded to existing needs

– Not a direct replacement for any existing tools

– Most widely-publicized use teenagers gossipping• Seen as water-cooler talk

• Kraut / Informal communications benefits

– Studies show most messages pertinent to work

– Studies show usefulness in distributed workplaces/groups Responds to Rhythms of Work

– Individual patterns of business vary across the day, location, day of week, etc.

– Promotes social understanding across geographically distributed groups

People

Bonnie Nardi (AT&T)

Steve Whittaker (AT&T)

Elizabeth Churchill (FXPAL)

James “Bo” Begole (SUN)

Nicole Yankelovich (SUN)

John Tang (SUN)

Wendy Kellogg (IBM)

Thomas Erickson (IBM)

Sara Bly (Sara Bly Consulting)