Introduction. Groupware. Groupware development and research contexts. Time-space classification of groupware

Transcription

1 Groupware Digital Business Commuications Introduction UID/HCI has traditionally focused on a single user and their machine 1980s saw increasing interest in multiuser systems and interfaces Computer Support Cooperative Work (CSCW) Groupware Support small groups and teams working together on a common task Groupware development and research contexts organisations Time-space classification of groupware same time different time MIS CSCW groups HCI individuals product PCs/applications networked PCs / groupware mainframe / systems product telecom internal contract same place different place face-to-face GDSS meeting rooms synchronous distributed Audio/video/deskt op conference time Asynchronous Notice board asynchronous distributed Workflow, bulletin boards space Example: notes, news and bulletin boards Post messages to a shared news group or bulletin board Conversational threads Moderation Membership control Digests and FAQ Example: conferencing and application sharing Combination of text, audio and video Desktop or meeting room Support for application sharing Floor control

2 Example: workflow Model and then coordinate the work process model roles, tasks and the flow of events and communication allow users to see their actions in relation to others actions and the overall group goal may trigger actions and generate reminders and alerts GDSS and meeting rooms Aim to improve the speed of quality of group decisions Usually involves specialised meeting rooms networked workstations public shared displays purpose designed furniture ranking, voting and analysis rools Technical challenges for groupware Coordination and sharing Awareness Coordination: asynchronous Form-oriented and procedure oriented models Conversation oriented models Associated with business process reengineering Often criticised for lack of flexibility (see later) Coordination: synchronisation How to synchronise what different participants see? WYSIWIS Relaxed WYSIWIS How to synchronise object manipulation? Locking Turn-taking protocols (floor control) Social locking Public versus private information Sharing - granularity Granularity refers to the size of shared chunks and the frequency of updates update chunkiness large small meeting system with floor control shared editors frequent coauthoring infrequent shared filestore update frequency

3 Awareness - peripheral Workplace studies identified the importance of peripheral awareness and tacit knowledge Systems to promote peripheral awareness media spaces event filtering and notification services collaborative virtual environments Awareness - gaze Gaze awareness is a key feature of turn-taking and referencing in conversation Conventional video conferencing doesn t support gaze Several systems try to solve this problem Organisational challenges for groupware Grudin s eight challenges for groupware developers Disparity in work and benefit Those who benefit may differ from those who have to do extra work Example: meeting scheduling tools benefits managers and their PAs costs more junior employees Example: digitised voice benefits for speakers costs for listeners Solutions: design benefits for all users Critial mass and prisoner s dilema problems May require all users to buy in and contribute in order to succeed just a few defectors can cause problems early adopters may abandon before critical mass is achieved Example: meeting scheduling Solution: reduce work required for all users and build in incentives Disruption of social processes Computer systems are happiest in a world of concrete and explicit information People often leave important things unsaid unscheduled time may not be free people may not be willing to acknowledge priorities people may not be happy to label the purpose of messages Solution: recognise the subtleties

4 Exception handling People do not follow standard procedures work to rule people improvise around procedures and can cope with exceptions designers may exacerbate the problem if they base designs on the company handbook Ethnographic studies by Suchman show how people use plans as resources Solution: study actual work practice (ethnography) and allow exceptions Unobtrusive accessibility People of work alone and collaborate occasionally Collaboration features are used relatively infrequently compared to single-user Solutions: add groupware features to existing single-user applications make then unobtrusive, but accessible Difficulty of evaluation Cognitive, perceptual and motor aspects of single-user applications easy to evaluate experimentally (e.g., in usability labs) Groupware involves more users, subtle social processes and may unfold over long timer periods Failure of intuition Technologies often introduced according to the intuition of senior decision makers (managers) They are drawn to applications that benefit one kind of user in particular: managers Solution: participatory design The adoption process Traditional approaches are problematic off-the-shelf model works for single user application even if only half of users like it - not so groupware top down push model works for organisation wide information systems, but groupware does not command this level of support Summary Support the focused work of small groups Different from information systrems and single-user applications Time-space classification and example applications Technical challenges Organisational challenges

5 Groupware Support for small groups and teams working together on a common task Different from both information systems and PC applications Information systems Focus on organisations Emerged from mainframes Supported by management science Groupware Focus on groups Emerged from networks and client-server Supported by ethnography PC applications Focus on individuals Emerged from PC Supported by HCI