This is the summary of the material discussed in the classes of CSCW, a new elective taught to MTech students in 2012 at JIIT, Noida, India. Essentially speaking, these are the excerpts of the selected papers and other publications.
1. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
Computer Supported Collaborative Work
1. Lecture #1,2 2 hrs. (23.07.12)
1. Collaboration as a natural way of life in animal world.
2. Collaboration Technologies before IT.
3. Distinction between Coordination, Cooperation, and Collaboration
4. Collaboration and social media.
5. Space-Time matrix for Classification of Collaboration Tools (same/ different: 2 x 2 matrix)
Ref: Robert Johansen. GroupWare: Computer Support for Business Teams. The Free Press, New York, NY,
USA, 1988.
6. Assignments:
i. Survey the collaboration habits and processes in animal world.
ii. Survey the pre-IT collaboration technologies in any domain.
iii. Survey facebook applications that support work or hobbies other than games.
2. Lecture #3 1 hrs. (26.07.12)
1. Maslow’s model of human needs (8 levels).
2. 5 Levels of Collaboration networks:
a. Information Networks: Information exchange
b. Networks: Information exchange + Negotiation
c. Coordination networks: + activity alignment
d. Cooperation networks: + Resource sharing + low level co-working
e. Collaboration networks: + Insight sharing (making recommendations) + High co-working + joint
planning, execution, evaluation, passion sharing
Ref: Luis M. Camarinha-Matos, Hamideh Afsarmanesh, Collaboration Networks: Value Creation in a
Knowledge Society, Proceedings of PROLAMAT’06 (Springer)
3. A Taxonomy of Collaboration Support Environments: 2 x 2 x 5 x 8 Hypercube
7. Assignments:
i. Build your first and very simple facebook application
3. Lecture #4,5 2 hrs. (30.07.12)
1. Why do we collaborate?
a. Create complex deliverable (e.g., software)
b. Complex Decision making
c. Knowledge Sharing (Learning)
2. Two Definitions of Collaborations
a. Collaboration is a purposeful, strategic way of working that leverages the resources of each party for
the benefit of all by coordinating activities and communicating information within an environment of
trust and transparency. Ref: Jeffrey Shuman and Janice Twombly, The Real Power of Collaboration,
2009
b. Collaboration is a process in which autonomous actors interact through formal and informal negotiation,
jointly creating rules and structures governing their relationships and ways to act or decide on the
issues that brought them together; it is a process involving shared norms and mutually beneficial
interactions.
Ref: Thomson , Ann Marie , 2001a . Collaboration: Meaning and Measurement. Ph.D. diss ., Indiana
University – Bloomington.
3. Additional dimensions of classifying Collaborative Work Support Systems
a. Participation: Open/Close
b. Governance: Hierarchical/Flat
Ref (a, b): Gary P. Pisano and Roberto verganti, Which kind of Collaboration is Right for you, Harverd
Business Review, 2008
c. Work Situation or Nature of task: Routine/Planned/Novel
2. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
Ref: Pedro Antunes, Valeria Herskovic, Sergio F. Ochoa, and Jose A. Pino, Structuring Dimensions for
Collaborative Systems Evaluation, ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 44, No. 2, Article 8, February 2012.
d. Human behaviour:
i. Physical (Psychomotor)
ii. Cognitive (Analytical/Creative)
iii. Emotional
e. User experience: Participation/Engagement/Productive/Happiness/Well being
Ref (d,e): Dirk Knemeyer, Applied Empathy: A Design Framework for Meeting Human Needs and
Desires, UX matters, 2006
f. Group Type: Homogeneous/diversified; newly formed (Adhoc) /working group.
4. A Framework for Collaborative Systems by Charles Sheppard, 1997
a.
b. Work tasks: Generate/Choose/Negotiate/Execute
3. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
Ref: Joesph E. McGrath, Groups: Interaction and Performance, Prentice Hall, 1984
8. Assignments:
i. Evaluate any Computer Supported Collaborative Work Support System.
4. Lecture #6 1 hrs. (09.08.12)
1. Functionality types supported by Collaborative Software
a. Messaging
b. Conferencing/Electronic Meeting
c. Group decision making Support
d. Document management
e. Document collaboration
f. Compound document management
g. Intelligent agent
Ref: Jiten Rama and Judith Bishop, A survey and comparison of CSCW Groupware Application,SAICSIT, 2006
C.A. Ellis, SJ Gibbs, GL Rein, Groupware: Some issues and Experinces, Communications of ACM, Jan- 1991,
Vol 34, No. 1
2. Complementary Perspectives of CSCW Systems for Design, Evaluation, and research
a. Communication Systems: issues related bandwidth error rate, protocol etc.
b. Distributed Systems: issues related to concurrency, robustness etc.
c. Artificial Intelligence Systems: issues related to applying AI techniques to improve CSCW, e.g., use of
Intelligent agent
d. HCI: issues related to functionality, usability, design, etc.
e. Sociology: issues related using existing sociological research results to design CSCW and also
understanding requirements by observing like a sociologist.
3. Capra’s theory of systems thinking
a. Parts Whole
b. Structures Process
4. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
c. Objective Knowledge Epistemic Knowledge
d. Building Network
e. Truth Approximation
4. Assignments:
i. Evaluate any Complex Computer Supported Collaborative Work Support System in terms of all the
parameters discussed so far.
5. Lecture #7,8 2 hrs. (13.08.12)
1. Wheel of Collaboration Tools
Ref: Per Einar Weiseth, Bjørn Erik Munkvold, Bjørn Tvedte, Sjur Larsen, The Wheel of Collaboration Tools: A
Typology for Analysis within a Holistic Framework, CSCW‘06, ACM, pp239-248
Content model management: metadata management, taxonomy management, template management and role
management.
Content life cycle management: access and security, versioning, transformation, classification, distribution,
retention and tracking. Versioning includes the functions of version control, version comparing, revision, rollback,
content inheritance and reference content management.
Process integration: includes the functions of workflow, content change notification and subscription.
5. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
2. Assignments:
i. Propose the functional specifications for a tool to support collaborative scheduling of project viva by
faculty and students.
ii. Propose the functional specifications for a tool to support collaborative software documentation.
6. Lecture #9 1 hrs. (17.08.12)
1. Activity Theory: Vygotsky (1920), Leontyev, Luria, Engerstrom (1987), Kuutti(1991), Nardi (2006)...
a. Activity theory is a philosophical framework for studying different forms of human praxis as developmental
processes, with both individual and social levels interlinked.
b. Activities in which humans participate are the basic unit of development and human life. Hence they can
be used the unit of analysis – a minimum meaningful context for individual actions.
c. Activity is a form of doing directed to an object. Real life situation always features an interconnected web
of activities which can be distinguished by their objects and motive.
d. Human cognition emerges and exists within context of an individual’s interactions with the world and can
only be understood in terms of these interactions and activities. Unity of consciousness and activity. You
are what you do. Human can control their behaviour “from the outside”, using and creating artefacts.
Artefacts are integral and inseparable component of human functioning.
e. Activity is culturally and socially determined. It is a collective phenomenon. The relationships within an
activity are culturally mediated.
f. Activity is realised through conscious and purposeful actions by participants.
g. Activity is a historically developing phenomenon. Mediating terms are historically formed and open to
further development. These are continuously reconstructed during the existence of an activity. The
different forces and contradictions can be uncovered only through a historical analysis.
h. Contradictions are the force behind the development of an activity. Conflicts are surface symptoms of
contradictions. The developmental dynamics of activities are based on the emergence and solving of
contradictions.
6. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
i. Activity System: Basic Structure of activity
1) Outcome: desired goal of activity.
2) Object: Problem space. Activity is performed to create (transform) some object (towards some
desired state, into an outcome). Object can have physical/ chemical/ biological/ cultural/ social
properties. These objects can be:
a. Physical product
i. Instruments, Machines
b. Soft product
i. Sign, Notation, Language, Story, Music, Film, Script, Plan, Procedures,
Process/method, Checklist, Computer Program, work organisation forms, ...
c. Conceptual product
i. Relationship, Meaning, Shared Concept, Idea, Model, Theory, Laws, ...
d. Experience/Knowledge
e. People (e.g. a patient to be cured, a student to be taught)
3) Subject: One of more persons who engage in the activity to create/ transform some object. The point
of view used to focus on the activity.
4) Tools: Tools mediate the Subject-Object relationship. carry and embody the history of relationship
between subject and object. Within an activity system, objects created by a subject may become a
mediating tool for another actor. Objects of an activity may mediate another activity.
5) Community: Other actors. All those people and groups who share the object. And whose knowledge,
interests, stakes, and goals shape the activity.
6) Social Rules: Rules mediate the subject-community relationship. Effect the activity and are impose by
the other actors including the larger organisation and professional community. Laws, codes,
conventions, customs, and agreements that people adhere to while engaging in the activity.
7) Division of labour: How the work in activity is divided among participants in the activity.
Horizontal/Vertical.
8) Activity system contains two channels of supervision and control: hierarchical power structure
embedded in the division of labour, and control through norms and values embedded in rules.
7. Lecture #10 1 hrs. (24.08.12)
1. Activities are interrelated
Ref: Kate Crawford & Helen Hasan, Demonstrations Of The Activity Theory Framework For Research In
Information Systems, Australasian Journal of Information Systems Volume 13 Number 2 May 2006
7. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
2. Typology of Work Support
Ref: i. Kari Kuutti, The Concept Of Activity As A Basic Unit Of Analysis For CSCW
Research, ECSCW, 1991
ii. Kari Kuutti, Identifying Potential CSCW Applications by Means of
Activity Theory Concepts: A Case Example, CSCW, 1992
a. Role of Subjects:
i. Passive participant (predetermined) – a, using the given artifacts in a pre-specified way
ii. Active Subject – Using given artifacts but deciding actively how, and when to use them
iii. Active developer of the activity (Expansive)- active developer of artifacts in an activity.
8. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
8. Lecture #11-12 2 hrs. (27.08.12)
1. Ref: A.J. Dix, Computer Supported Cooperative Work - A Framework, 1994
P: Person.
A: Artifact of the work. Artefacts are the shared focus of work. Work is the focus of the cooperation.
It does not imply that all artefacts are shared. Participants may have different access and control over
all artefacts.
Feedthrough: P2‘s observation of the effect of the action on A by P1 and vice versa.
Understanding is about the work and may also be goal of the work (discovery oriented work).
Deixis- various forms to refer to the particular artefacts during P-P communication.
2. Ref: V. Kaptelinin, B. Nardi And C. Macaulay, The Activity Checklist: A Tool for Representing
the “Space” of Context, interactions, July-August, 1999
2.1 Five Basic Principles of Activity Theory
a. Object Orientedness: The reality around human activity consists of natural, synthetic, cultural,
social, conceptual objects including people.
b. Hierarchical structure of activity: (Source of figure: Victor Kaptelinin & Bonnie A. Nardi,
Activity Theory in HCI: Fundamentals and Reflections, Morgan and Claypool Publishers,
2012, pp 28)
i. Activity unfolds through resolution of tensions
9. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
ii. Activities are undertaken to fulfil motives. Motives are top level objectives to fulfil a
need/desire.
iii. Action are goal directed processes. Actions are conscious.
iv. Operations do not have their own goals.
v. Actions transform into operation when they become reutilized and unconscious.
vi. An operation can become an action when conditions impeded an action‘s execution through
previously formed actions (major tensions).
(Source: Irshat Madyarov and Aida Taef, Contradictions in a Distance Course for a Marginalized
Population at a Middle Eastern University, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance
Learning, Vol 13, No 2, 2012)
Few Examples: (Source: Bonnie A. Nardi, Context and consciousness: Activity Theory and
Human Computer Interaction, MIT Press, 1996, pp 33)
c. Internalisation/Externalisation: internal (mental) and external activities constantly transform
into each other.
d. Mediation: Tools shape the way human interact with reality. The experience is accumulated in
the structural properties of tools (size, shape, material) and the knowledge of how tool should be
used.
e. Development: All practices are reformed and shaped by historical development.
10. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
2.2 Four Perspectives on the use of ―target technology‖
a. Means and ends—the extent to which the technology facilitates and constrains the attainment of
users‘ goals and the impact of the technology on provoking or resolving conflicts between different
goals.
b. Social and physical aspects of the environment— integration of target technology with requirements,
tools, resources, and social rules of the environment.
c. Learning, cognition, and articulation — internal versus external components of activity and support
of their mutual transformations with target technology.
d. Development—developmental transformation of the foregoing components as a whole.
3. Mwanza’s Eight Step Model - using Activity Theory for identifying the essential elements of human
activity and for examining inter-relationships - (Ref: Mwanza’s PhD Thesis (2002) cited by Mwanza-
Simwami, Daisy, AODM as a framework and model for characterising learner experiences with
technology. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society (Je-LKS), 7(3), 2011, pp. 75–85).
11. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
4. Assignment: Propose a design for collaborative programming environment for novice programmers.
9. Lecture #13 1 hrs. (31.08.12)
1. Levels of tensions (contradictions/misfits/in-congruencies) in activity systems
1) Primary – within each element of the central activity
2) Secondary – between the elements of central activity
3) Tertiary – between the object and motive of the dominant central activity and the object and
motive of a culturally mopre advanced form of central activity
4) Quaternary – between the central and neighbouring activities.
[excerpts from Irshat Madyarov and Aida Taef, Contradictions in a Distance Course for a
Marginalized Population at a Middle Eastern University, The International Review of
Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 13, No 2, 2012......Engeström (1987) argues that
in schooling settings with a capitalist socioeconomic formation, the primary contradictions within
the nodes of activity acquire the nature of use and exchange value. In his example, text
represents the object of learning, which can be studied in exchange for grades or for meaningful
use in real life. Instruments oriented towards exchange value require recall and memorization;
whereas, instruments that call for meaningful use of knowledge provide means for investigation
and real-life problem-solving. Division of labor oriented towards exchange value calls for isolated
roles, while division of labor oriented towards use value encourages cooperation. Community
oriented towards exchange value produces a class of separate individuals, but when it is oriented
towards use value, it creates a team of inquiry. Rules oriented towards the exchange value create
competition. Rules oriented towards the use value encourage risk-taking. Finally, a student as a
subject is either a grade-maker when oriented towards the exchange value of the object or is a
sense-maker when oriented towards the use value of his or her object. Thus, an activity where the
subject is oriented towards the exchange value of the object leads to alienation because there is no
true collaboration in the community node. An activity where the subject is oriented towards the use
value of the object leads to inclusiveness and collaboration.
Secondary contradictions occur between the nodes of an activity system, and tertiary and
quaternary contradictions occur between different activity systems. Engeström (1987) provides an
example of instruments that a doctor uses in his practice. A doctor may be faced with a
contradiction of how much to spend on the instruments to maintain his/her cost efficiency (i.e., a
contradiction between use value and exchange value of medical instruments). The secondary
contradictions (2) are those that emerge between these nodes within an activity system.
According to Engeström, traditional instruments used in biomedicine (instruments) may be
inadequate for diagnosing the patients with complex illnesses (object).
The tertiary contradictions (3) arise when a culturally more advanced activity within the central
activity of interest introduces a more advanced object or motive. This could be illustrated with a
12. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
clinic administration introducing new methods of diagnoses that run counter to the traditions of
some doctors in that clinic.
Finally, the quaternary contradictions (4) exist between the central activity system and the
outside activity systems. The latter could be of four types: a) an activity system of object (e.g.,
diagnosing and treating patients); b) a rule producing activity system (e.g., the clinic
administration); c) a subject producing activity system (e.g., medical schools that prepare doctors
and nurses); and d) an instrument producing activity system (e.g., a company that provides drugs
and other medical instruments).]
2. Some example questions for activity analysis: (Ref: Mwanza’s PhD thesis (2002) cited by Mwanza-
Simwami, Daisy, AODM as a framework and model for characterising learner experiences with
technology. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society (Je-LKS), 7(3), 2011, pp. 75–85).
· What Tools does the subject use to satisfy the objective and how?
· What Rules affect the way the subject satisfies the objective and how?
· How does the division of labour affect the way the subject satisfies the objective?
· How do the tools in use affect the way the community satisfies the objective?
· What rules affect the way the community satisfies their objective and how?
· How does the division of labour affect the way the community satisfies the objective?
3. Ref: Victor Kaptelinin, Computer Mediated Activity: Functional organs in social and
developmental context, Bonnie A. Nardi (Ed.), Context and consciousness: Activity Theory and
Human Computer Interaction, MIT Press, 1996 ,pp 45-68.
IPA: Internal plane of action is the human ability to perform manipulations with an internal representation of
external objects before staring actions with these objects in reality.
4. Bloom‘s taxonomy of cognitive engagements/tasks
1) Remember
2) Understand
3) Apply
4) Analyse
5) Synthesise
6) Evaluate
During problem solving activity, the performers move up and down this ladder of cognitive engagements.
Technology has the potential to offer the support at all these levels. Level specific communication and
collaboration support for collaborators can also enrich the tools and activity.
13. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
5. Assignment: Revise your design for collaborative programming environment for novice
programmers.
10. Lecture #14-15 2 hrs. (03.09.12)
1. Cognition involves
- Creation of representations
- Transformation and manipulation of representations
- Transmission of representation
2. Consider Computer as a medium for representation of data, ideas, information, and knowledge.
3. Affordances of Computational representations:
- N dimensional
- Multilayered
- Dynamic
- Flexible
- Actionable
- Progressive disclosure
- Multimedia
4. Mediating artefact hierarchy (Ref: P. Collins, S. Shukla, & D. Redmiles, Activity Theory and Systems
Design, A view from the Trenches, CSCW, 11, 2002, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp 55-80)
- What : Contributes a means of achieving the object
- How: Contributes to understanding how to achieve the object
- Why: Motivates achievement
- Where-to: Motivates evolution of all elements in the activity system
5. Assignment: Revise your design for collaborative programming environment for novice
programmers.
11. Lecture #16 (14.09.12)
1. Source: Lynda M. Applegate, Benn R. Konsynki, and J.F. Nunamaker, A Group Decision support
system for idea generation and Issue Analysis in organisation planning, CSCW 1986, ACM, pp 16-34
a. Summary of earlier research
Decreased performance in group brainstorming: inhibiting factors
i. Fear of social disapproval from group members
ii. Anxiety about oral communication skills
iii. Presence of authority figure
iv. Use of time is limited by other group members
v. Repetition of same responses by number of other group members (especially high status group
members) leads to copying
Effect of Computer mediated communication (summary of earlier research)
i. Role definitions are blurred and group members are less influenced by social status. Equalisation of
participation.
ii. CMC encourages self expression, decreased inhibition, true feelings emerge and Increased time to reach
consensus.
b. New finding
Factors facilitating idea generation in CMC (for planning session)
i. Reading other‘s ideas prompted my thoughts
ii. Equal availability of input time
iii. Anonymity
Factors inhibiting idea generation in CMC (for planning session)
i. Sometimes I lost the idea while waiting for a screen
ii. Lots of reading
iii. It is easier to write the idea than to type it into the computer.
iv. Limits imposed on world view
14. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
2. Source: G. Desanctis and R.B. Gallupe, A Foundation For The Study of Group Decision Support
System, Management Science, Vol. 33, No.5, May 1987, USA, pp. 589-609
a. Group Decision making process - 2 or more people are jointly responsible for detecting a problem,
elaborating on the nature of the problem, generating possible solutions, evaluating potential solutions, or
formulating strategies for implementing solutions.
b. Communication Activities during group decision making:
Proposal exploration,
Opinion exploration,
Analysis,
Expressions of preference, argumentation,
Socializing,
Information seeking,
Information giving,
Proposal development, and proposal development.
c. Three Levels of GDSS
Level 1: Remove Communication Barriers.
Level 2 : Provide decision modelling and group decision techniques to reduce uncertainty and
noise in group decision making.
15. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
3. Assignment:
a. Review any Structured Group meeting/group decision making technique like Delphi, Nominal Group
Technique, Brainstorming etc. Suggest how your chosen technique can be embedded in the Level 2 GDSS
software. Due date 17/09/12
b. Review a PhD thesis in the area of CSCW as per the assignment made in the class.
- First 5-7 min presentation about the problem and results is due on 21/09/12.
12. Lecture #17-18 2 hr. (17.09.12)
1. Design the UI for Level –I support for software teams meetings.
2. Source: Mark Stefik, Gregg Foster, Daniel G. Bobrow, Kenneth Kahn, Stan Lanning, and Lucy Suchman,
Beyond The Chalkboard: Computer Support For Collaboration And Problem Solving in Meetings, CACM, Jan
1987, pp 32-47.
b. Cognoter: Brainstorming
items ideas
a. Boardnoter
16. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
c. Cognoter: Ordering the ideas
d. Cognoter: Grouping the items
ideas
3. Contd. Source: G. Desanctis and R.B. Gallupe, A Foundation For The Study of Group Decision Support
System, Management Science, Vol. 33, No.5, May 1987, USA, pp. 589-609
a. Level 3: Machine induced group commn patterns; expert advice in selection and arrangement of rules
to be applied during the meeting
b.
17. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
c.
Collection, synthesis,
Goals are known. Action plan is filtering & display of
generated. ideas
Generation of novel ideas.
Nominal Group Technique (NGT)
Selection of a correct alternative
from known options.
Selection of a socially preferred
alternative for which there is no
objective criteria. Game theory, multi-
objective decision
models
Resolving Conflicting viewpoint
Resolving conflicting motives/
interests.
4. Source: J.F. Nunamaker, A.R. Dannies, J.S. Valacich, D.R. Vogel, J.F.George, Electronic Meeting
Systems to support Group Work, CACM, July 1991, pp 40-61
a. Electronic Meeting Systems (EMS) can improve group work in many situations because it:
i. enables all participants to work simultaneously (human parallel processing);
ii. provides an equal opportunity for participation;
iii. discourages behaviour that can negatively impact meeting productivity;
iv. permits the group to choose from a spectrum of structured or unstructured techniques and methods to
perform the task;
v. offers access to external information; and
vi. supports the development of an organizational memory from meeting to meeting.
b. Common Process Gains of Collaboration
i. Synergy: A member uses information in a way that the original holder did not because the member has
different information or skills
ii. Learning: Members may learn from and imitate more skilled members to improve performance
iii. Stimulation: Working in group may stimulate and encourage individuals to perform better
18. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
iv. More information: A group as a whole has more information than any one member
v. More objective evaluation: Groups are better at catching errors than are the individuals who propose
idea
c. Common Process Losses of Collaboration
d. EMS features
i. Process Support: communication infrastructure (media, channels, and devices, electronic or otherwise)
e.g., electronic communication channel or blackboard.
ii. Process structure: techniques/rules that direct the pattern, timing or content of this communication.
Global to the meeting- strategy/agenda to perform the task. Local process structures (internal to specific
activity) – talk queue, NGT
iii. Task support: information and computation infrastructure for task-related activities e.g., access to
external data bases, personal notes, previous meetings, calculators, spreadsheet.
iv. Task structure: techniques/rules/models for analyzing task-related information to gain new insight e.g.,
problem modelling, those within computer models or DSS, multi-criteria decision making (numeric/
nonnumeric).
19. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
e. Potential EMS Effects
13. Lecture #19 1 hr. (21.09.12)
A. Student Presentations on selected PhD works in CSCW
B. Group System EMS Architecture (University of Arizona, 1991):
1. Electronic Meeting Room
2. Meeting Leader/facilitator: Performs four functions:
i. Technical support
ii. Maintaining the agenda and assessing the need for agenda changes
iii. Assist in agenda planning
iv. Provide organisational continuity by setting standards for use , developing training material, maintaining the
system, and acting as champion/sponsor.
3. Software Toolkit:
i. Session planning and management
20. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
ii. Group Interaction (Exploration & Idea generation, Idea organisation, Prioritisation, Policy development &
Evaluation)
iii. Organisational Memory
iv. Individual work
v. Research data collection
Conclusions:
1. The effects of EMS use are dependent upon the situation, so it is necessary give details of the situation.
2. Result of any one study will not apply to all group work, so it is important to consider the bounds to which the
findings can be generalised.
3. New research question – does X factor explain why EMS use produces Y results in Z situation?
4. Understand what EMS components are useful in what situations.
14. Lecture #20-21 2 hrs. (24.09.12)
Some Well-known User Interface Design Guidelines
A. User engineering principles for B. Shneiderman (1987); C. Nielsen and Molich (1990)
interactive systems (Hansen, 1971) Shneiderman and Plaisant 1. Consistency and standards
1. First principle: Know the user (2009) 2. Visibility of system status
2. Minimise memorisation 5. Strive for consistency 3. Match between system and real world
2a. Selection not entry 6. Cater to universal usability 4. User control and freedom
2b. Names not numbers 7. Offer informative feedback 5. Error prevention
2c. Predictable behavior 8. Design task flows to yield 6. Recognition rather than recall
2d. Access to system information closure 7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
3. Optimise operations 9. Prevent errors 8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
3a. Rapid execution of common 10. Permit easy reversal of actions 9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and
operations 11. Make users feel they are in recover from errors
3b. Display inertia control 10. Provide online documentation and help
3c. Muscle memory 12. Minimize short-term memory
3d. Reorganize command parameters load
4. Engineer for errors
4a. Good error messages
4b. Engineer out the common errors
4c. Reversible actions
4d. Redundancy
4e. Data structure integrity
21. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
D. Stone et al. (2005) E. Johnson (2007)
1. Visibility: First step to goal should be clear Principle 1 Focus on the users and their tasks, not on the technology
2. Affordance: Control suggests how to use it Understand the users
3. Feedback: Should be clear what happened or is Understand the tasks
happening Consider the context in which the software will function
4. Simplicity: As simple as possible and task- Principle 2 Consider function first, presentation later
focused Develop a conceptual model
5. Structure: Content organized sensibly Principle 3 Conform to the users’ view of the task
6. Consistency: Similarity for predictability Strive for naturalness
7. Tolerance: Prevent errors, help recovery Use users‘ vocabulary, not your own
8. Accessibility: Usable by all intended users, Keep program internals inside the program
despite handicap, access device, or Find the correct point on the power/complexity tradeoff
environmental conditions Principle 4 Design for the common case
Make common results easy to achieve
Two types of ―common‖: ―how many users‖ vs. ―how often‖
Design for core cases; don‘t sweat ―edge‖ cases
Principle 5 Don’t complicate the users’ task
Don‘t give users extra problems
Don‘t make users reason by elimination
Principle 6 Facilitate learning
Think ―outside-in,‖ not ―inside-out‖
Consistency, consistency, consistency
Provide a low-risk environment
Principle 7 Deliver information, not just data
Design displays carefully; get professional help
The screen belongs to the user
Preserve display inertia
Principle 8 Design for responsiveness
Acknowledge user actions instantly
Let users know when software is busy and when it isn‘t
Free users to do other things while waiting
Animate movement smoothly and clearly
Allow users to abort lengthy operations they don‘t want
Allow users to estimate how much time operations will take
Try to let users set their own work pace.
Principle 9 Try it out on users; then fix it
Test results can surprise even experienced designers
Schedule time to correct problems found by tests
Testing has two goals: informational and social
There are tests for every time and purpose
1. Assignment:
a. Create a unified and comprehensive set of design guidelines by merging these guidelines. Use any one of
these as the base and expand/elaborate/replace its elements with elements that are better expressed in
any other guideline.
b. Further, use your unified set of UI design guidelines to reflect upon some software systems that support
communication, coordination, and collaboration.
15. Lecture #22 (28.09.12)
1. Student Presentations on selected PhD works in CSCW Contd...
22. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
16. Lecture #23 (05.10.12)
Cognitive Science Based HCI Principles:
(Ref: Jeff Johnson, Designing with the Mind in Mind, Chapter 1-6, Morgan Kaufmann, Elsevier, 2010)
A. We perceive what we expect
1. Perception biased by experience: 2. Perception biased by Current 3. Perception bias by
context : Goal:
Goals Influence
where we look
Goals sensitize our
Fold napkins. Polish silverware. perceptual system to
Wash dishes. certain features
French napkins. Polish silverware.
German dishes.
B. Our vision is optimised to see Structures: Gestalt principles
1. Proximity: Objects that 2. Similarity: Similar objects 3. Continuity: tend to 4. Closure: We perceive a
are near to each other appear related/grouped. continue shapes whole shape in an
(relative to other objects) beyond their ending incomplete space by
appear to be grouped. points. filling in the missing
information.
5. Symmetry: when we 6. Figure/Ground: Our mind 7. Common fate: B1. We seek and Use
perceive objects we tend separates the visual field into objects that move Visual Structures
to perceive them as foreground and background together are perceived 1. Structures enhance our
symmetrical shapes that as grouped/related ability to scan long
form around their centre. numbers
2. Data Specific controls
provide even more
structure
3. Visual hierarchy lets
people focus on the
relevant information
23. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
C. Reading is unnatural
Reading involves Poor information design can disrupt reading- Minimize Reading in UI
- Feature driven (bottom AVOID
up) reading: i. Uncommon or unfamiliar vocabulary
letter word sentence ii. Difficult script and typefaces, All CAPS
meaning efficient, e.g., SIMPLICITY IS THE ULTIMATE FORM OF SOPHISTICATION.
automatic in skilled readers iii. Tiny fonts
- Context driven (top iv. Text on noise background or with poor color contrast
down) reading: 2002:
meaning of sentence
words; word letter
relevant when feature driven v. Information buried in repetition: Successive lines
reading is difficult/
insufficiently automatic
e.g., Mray had a ltilte lmab,
its feclee was withe as sown. vi. Centered text
2003:
And ervey wehre taht Mray Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, 2007:
wnet, the lmab was srue to more complex, and more violent.
go. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage
to move in the opposite direction.
D. Our Color Vision is Limited
- Vision is optimized for edges contrast, not brightness:
- Most easily distinguishable colors: R G B Y W B
- Factors affecting the ability to distinguish colors: TAKE CARE
- Paleness (less saturated)/- Size of color patch/ - Distance between patches
- Color blindness: 8% males, 0.5% females are color deficient
- Avoid dark red/black; blue/purple; light green/white; green/khaki: (use Vischeck.com for simulation)
- External factors also influence: KEEP IN MIND
- Variation among monitors/ - Grey scale displays/ - Display angle /- Ambient light
- Don‘t use dark reds, blues, or violets against any dark colors.
- Separate strong opponent colors.
- Don‘t rely on color alone, use other cues.
E. Our Peripheral Vision is Poor
Characteristics: Implications for error and
Much greater resolution in the center of the retina (fovea). Maps to 1-2 cm on screen. other messages:
Put it where users are looking
Mark the error
Use an error symbol
Reserve red for error
Pop up windows: use
sparingly
o Non-modal pop-ups
o Application –level modal
pop-ups
o System- modal pop-up
Our eyes move rapidly and constantly about 3 times/second. Use sound : limited; in games
Peripheral provides low res. cues to guide eye movement. Good for motion detection Flash or wiggle (< 0.5 sec)
24. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
17. Lecture #24-25 (08.10.12) (Ref: Jeff Johnson, Designing with the Mind in Mind, Chapter 7-10, Morgan Kaufmann,
Elsevier, 2010)
F. Our Attention is limited; Our Memory is imperfect
Information Processing Theory (Miller, 1956)
Stage Theory (Atkinson, R., & Shiffrin, R., 1968)
Attention: process to STM
Repetition: Maintain in STM
Elaboration: Process to LTM
Memory:
Each memory corresponds to a pattern of neural activity extending over a wide area of the brain.
STM is not a temporary buffer. It is the combined focus of attention- currently activated neural patterns of which we are aware.
Characteristics of Attention HCI Design Implications
We focus on our goals and pay little attention to our tools Tools should fade away into the background and allow users
to focus on the goals.
We use external aids to keep track of what we are doing Indicate user‘s progress towards their goal.
- Allow users to mark/move objects to indicate which ones
they have worked on versus which ones they have not.
We follow information ‗scent‘ towards our goal. We don‘t think Understand the likely goals at each decision point in a task and
deeply about aspects of UI - instructions, command names, option ensure that each choice point provides options for every
labels, icons, navigation bar items. We see these things in a very important user goal and clearly indicates which option leads to
literal way and only notice things that match our goals. which goal.
We prefer familiar path (even if it requires extra work). Guide users to the best path from the beginning
- Provide short cuts for frequently used functions for
experienced users
Our thought cycle: Goal, Execute, Evaluate Goal: Provide clear paths – including initial steps- for the user
goals that are intended to be supported by s/w.
Execute: task based concepts, clear scent at choice points, help
them avoid diversions away from their goals.
Evaluate: feedback and status, reversal
After we achieve our goals, we often forget cleanup steps Support users to remember these steps, or
- Eliminate the need to remember by automation.
Characteristics of Memory Prominently indicate system status and user‘s progress towards
STM is volatile. their goal.
STM is limited: short-term memory could only hold It is too unreliable for designers to assume that users can,
o 5-9 Chunks (meaningful units) of information - Miller, 1956 without clear, continuous feedback, keep track of what mode
o 4-6 Chunks – Broadbent, 1975 (different effects of same action depending upon system‘s
o People remember more features of some items than of others – mode) the system is in, even when the users are the ones
Cowan et al, 2004 changing the systems from one mode to another. Hence, avoid
There is limitation to how much information can be transferred modes or provide adequate mode-feedback.
from the working memory to the long-term memory at a time. People viewing search results often do not remember the
search terms they just typed. Hence display the search terms.
Allow users to refer to instructions for multi-step operations
while executing them until completing all the steps.
LTM limits are unknown Avoid developing systems that burden LTM.
LTM is not accurate, it is error prone; it uses heavy compression. Learning and long term retention are enhanced by UI
Items are reduced to set of abstract features. consistency
Information decay – old information not attended to and revised
hence we forget
LTM is weighted by emotion.
Interference – new/old information networks block access to the
information.
LTM is retroactively alterable.
Recognition is easy; Recall is hard See and chose is easier than recall and type
Recognition is perception + LTM working together. Use pictures where possible to convey function
o Similar perception in similar context cause similar pattern of Use thumbnail images to depict full sized images
neural activity. Make common functions more visible.
o Future reactivation of a pattern is easier after repeated Use visual cues to let users recognize where they are.
activations. Make authentication information easier to recall
Recall is LTM reactivating old neural pattern without immediate
25. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
similar perceptual input.
G. Problem Solving is hard
Brain: We have three parts in the brains. All contribute to our thought and behavior. Old and mid brain react faster.
Old brain (brain Mid brain: Birds and New brain (cerebral cortex): Mammals. Large in elephants, dolphin, whale,
stem): Fish lower mammals monkeys, apes, humans.
onwards. - Controls and reacts - Controls intentional purposeful conscious activity- planning, interpretation, analysis
- Identify edible, with emotions – joy, - Only creatures with cortex can learn from other‘s experiences
dangerous, sexy. sadness, fear, anger,.. - Possibly only human brain can articulate what they have learnt from experience.
Characteristics HCI Design Implications
Performing learned action is easy Make the system familiar
o Performing automatic (routine, well learned) actions consumes Design such that the learning the tool is easy and it
few or no cognitive resources – STM/attention. So these can be quickly become automatic.
done in parallel with other activities. Minimize the amount of attention users must devote.
Controlled processing - Problem solving and calculations are hard Minimize the gulf of execution
o Problems – Unfamiliar Situations.
o Requires focused attention and constant conscious monitoring.
o Execute relatively slowly and serially,
o Strains the limits of STM.
o Human brain is not optimized for calculations. It is done mainly Let people use perception rather than calculation
in brain‘s controlled, monitored mode. o Let the computer do the math.
o Problems that are easy for most people:
Involve 1-2 steps, or Minimize the number and complexity of settings.
Some steps are memorized (automatic), or Make the system familiar:
Don‘t involve much information o Follow industry standards/conventions.
o Consistency across versions
o Use common metaphors
o Study users to know their familiarity/unfamiliarity
o Hard problems strain our brain:
Exceed our STM limits, or Don‘t expect users to deduce information. Tell them
Require some information retrieval from LTM, or explicitly and exactly what they need to know.
Encounter distractions Don‘t distract users by imposing technical problems
o Solving technical/domain specific problems require technical/
and goals that users don‘t want.
domain specific interest and training.
o Don‘t make users diagnose systems problems.
H. Button Size & Placement: Fitt’s Law
(Ref: Lukas Mathis, Designed for Use: Creating Usable Interfaces for Applications and the web, Chapter 14, Pragmatic
Programmers, LLC, 2011).
a. People can hit a target more quickly if the target is bigger or closer to the user‘s mouse cursor (on a desktop system).
If you want to make things easier to hit, make them bigger. If you want them harder to hit, make them smaller.
―Shut down‖ button is smaller than the clickable areas that start applications.
b. The motion of the cursor should be in line with the form of the target—that is, if the user is moving the mouse horizontally to
hit a target, making the target‘s form horizontal makes it easier to hit
26. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
. b.
, ID (Index of Difficulty); D (Distance to the centre of the target); W (Width of the target)
Time to hit a target, T = a +bID; a (start/stop time of the device); b(inherent speed of the device)
c. Things that are closer to the cursor can be reached by the user more quickly.
d. Things that touch the screen edge are easier to hit. Corners are easiest.
e. Leave some room between different clickable things.
f. Radial (Pie) menu reduce the average distance of buttons from the start point.
I. Real Time requirements for Responsive System
(Ref: Jeff Johnson, Designing with the Mind in Mind, Morgan Kaufmann, Chapter 12, Elsevier, 2010)
Perceptual and Cognitive Functions How Long Does Our Deadlines for Interactive System
Brain Take Design
Shortest gap of silence that we can detect in a 1 millisec (0.001 sec) Maximum tolerable delay or drop-out
sound time for audio feedback (e.g., tones,
―earcons,‖ music)
Shortest time a visual stimulus can be shown 5 millisec (0.005 sec) • Inducing unconscious familiarity of
and still affect us (perhaps unconsciously) images or symbols
Minimum noticeable lag in ink as someone 10 millisec (0.01 sec) • Electronic ink maximum lag time
draws with a stylus
Maximum interval for auditory fusion of 20 millisec (0.02 sec) • Generating tones of various pitches
successive sound pulses into a pitched tone
Maximum interval for visual fusion of 50 millisec (0.05 sec) • Maximum interval between animation
successive images frames
Speed of flinch reflex (involuntary motor 80 millisec (0.08 sec)
response to possible danger)
Time lag between a visual event and our full 100 millisec (0.1 sec) • Feedback for successful hand-eye
perception of it (or perceptual cycle time) coordination, e.g., pointer movement,
Duration of saccade (involuntary eye 100 millisec (0.1 sec) object movement or resizing, scrolling,
movement), during which vision is suppressed drawing with mouse
Maximum interval between events for 140 millisec (0.14 sec) • Feedback for click on button or link
perception that one event caused another event • Displaying ―busy‖ indicators
Time required for a skilled reader's brain to 150 millisec (0.15 sec)
27. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
comprehend a printed word
Time to subitize (determine the number of) up 200 millisec (0.2 sec; • Assume users can ―count‖ 1–4 screen
to four to five items in our visual field 50 millisec/item) items in about 100 milliseconds, but more
than four take 300 milliseconds per item
Editorial ―window‖ for events that reach 200 millisec (0.2 sec)
consciousness
Time to identify (i.e., name) a visually 250 millisec (0.25 sec)
presented object
Time required to mentally count items in a 300 millisec (0.3
scene when there are more than four items sec)/item • Allowable overlap between speech
utterances
Attentional ―blink‖ (inattentiveness to other 500 millisec (0.5 sec) • Displaying progress indicators for long
input) following recognition of an object operations
Visual-motor reaction time (intentional response 700 millisec(0.7 sec) • Finishing user-requested operations,
to unexpected event) e.g., open window
Maximum duration of silent gap between turns About 1 sec • Finishing unrequested operations, e.g.,
in person-to-person conversation auto-save
• Time after info presentation that can be
used for other computation, e.g., to make
inactive objects active
• Required wait time after presenting
important info before presenting more
Duration of unbroken attention to a single task 6–30 sec • Completing one step of a multistep task,
(―unit task‖) e.g., one edit in a text editor
• Completing user input to an operation
• Completing one step in a wizard
(multipage dialog box)
Time to make critical decisions in emergency 1–5 minutes Assure that all info required for decision
situations, e.g., medical triage is provided or can be found within this
time
18. Lecture #26 (12.10.12) (Ref: Jeff Johnson, Designing with the Mind in Mind, Chapter 11, Morgan Kaufmann,
Elsevier, 2010)
J. Many factors affect Learning
Characteristics HCI Design Implications
We learn to use a tool faster when Thoroughly understand the user goals and tasks
Operation is task focused, simple, and consistent. o Perform task analysis
o When the ‗gulf of execution‘ is small. - Design task-focused conceptual model
- Simplify the CM
- Maximize consistency in CM
Design UI based on task analysis & conceptual model.
o Ensure Keystroke consistency/Follow Look and feel
standards/Follow Style guides
Vocabulary is task-focused, familiar and consistent Use task-focused, familiar and consistent vocabulary
o Conceptual model
o Lexicon
o Industry standard
Risk is low Provide low-risk environments:
o Prevent error where possible
o Deactivate invalid command
o Make error easy to detect by showing users clearly
what they have done.
o Allow users to undo, reverse, and correct easily
- PhD Thesis Summary Presentations by Students
19. Lecture #27-28 2 hrs (15.10.12)
- Discussed following three Papers:
28. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
Ref: Randall H. Trigg, Lucy A. Suchman, Frank G. Halasz, Supporting Collaboration In Notecards, CSCW 1986,
pp153-162. Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
Three kinds of activities occurring in collaboration: substantive, annotative and procedural.
Substantive activities: activities that constitute the work at hand. Paper Writing: paper's text; Design: plan & implementation. Its
mutual intelligibility is supported through annotative and procedural activities.
Annotative activities include commenting, critiquing, questioning and otherwise annotating the work itself.
Procedural activities include discussions (message posting) about conventions for use of the medium or technology, logistics of turn-
taking, record keeping, etc.
Links
Network of multiple interlinked cards (card type, link type).
Card Types: Text card, Sketch card, Query card each with an underlying editor; Browser card (with node-link diagram); FileBox
card (for filing by building hierarchical structures); Annotation card (Comment, Response, Argument); History card (one history
card per session); Message cards. More type can be added by user using LISP programming.
Three modes of collaboration: Draft Passing, simultaneous sharing, online presentations.
A. Draft Passing: users take turns to use shared notefile. Logistics of turn taking is coordinated via email or real time communication.
B. Simultaneous Sharing: Additional procedural issues:
Access Contention: Simultaneous sharing changes the nature of access contention, moving the contention from the level of the
whole note-file to some finer-grained level. Distributed NoteCards provides contention resolution at the level of individual
card. The system allows any number of users simultaneously to read and display a given card. However, permission to make
modifications to the card is restricted to one user at a time. Exclusive write permission for unlimited time is granted on FCFS
basis. All readers of the card are notified when certain modification events occur. Three levels of modification notice: (1) when
a user requests write permission for card, all readers of that card are notified; (2) when a write saves the modified card on
notefile; (3) when a write deletes card.
Real Time monitoring
Real Time communication
C. Online Presentations: provide means for the authors to document conventions in order that the substance of the presentation is
intelligible. ReadME card; Guided tour.
Ref: Thomas W. Malone, Kenneth R. Grant, Franklyn A. Turbak, Stephen A. Brobst, And Michael D. Cohen,
Intelligent Information Systems, CACM, May 1987, pp 390-402. MIT
29. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
Problem: disseminating information so that it reaches those people to whom it is valuable without interfering with those to whom it is
not.
The Information Lens system uses techniques from artificial intelligence and user-interface design.
- Built on the top an existing email service. Additional capabilities:
- Structured message templates are available for message composition;
- Receivers can specify rules to automatically filter and classify messages arriving in their mailbox;
- Senders can include as an addressee of a message, in addition to specific individual or distribution lists, a special mailbox
(―Anyone‖) to indicate that the sender is willing to have this message automatically redistributed to anyone else who might be
interested; and
- Receivers can specify rules that find and show messages addressed to ―Anyone‖ that they would not otherwise have seen. By
gradually adding new message types and new rules, users can continually increase the helpfulness of the system without ever
being dependent on its ability to perfectly filter all messages.
Message template: Rule Composition:
Message Template Types:
Rule: if a message satisfies the test, then the action specified by the rule is performed on the message. Examples:
IF Message type: Action request
Action deadline: Today, Tomorrow
THEN Move to: Urgent
IF Message type: Meeting announcement
Day: Not Tuesday
THEN Delete
IF Message type: Request for information
Subject: Al, LISP
THEN Show
IF From: Silk, Siegel
THEN SET CHARACTERISTIC: VIP
IF Message type: Action request
Characteristic: VIP
THEN Move to: Urgent
Ref: Thomas W Malone, What is Coordination Theory? National Science FoundationCoordination Theory Workshop,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, SSM WP # 2051-88 February, 1988
30. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
Coordination is the additional information processing performed when multiple, connected actors pursue goals that a single actor
pursuing the same goals would not perform.
Coordination theory as a body of principles about how the activities of separate actors can be coordinated.
- How can overall goals be subdivided into tasks?
- How can tasks be assigned to groups or to individual actors?
- How can resources be allocated among different actors?
- How can information be shared among different actors to help achieve the overall goals?
- How can the different knowledge and conflicting preferences of different actors be combined to arrive at overall goals?
Effects:
(1) A "first order" effect of reducing coordination costs with information technology may be to substitute information technology for
some human coordination.
(2) A "second order" effect of reducing coordination costs may be to increase the overall amount of coordination used.
(3) A "third order" effect of reducing coordination costs may be to encourage a shift toward the use of more "coordination-intensive"
structures.
Research Questions:
(1) What are the alternative methods for allocating scarce resources to goals and what are the relative advantages and disadvantages of
these different methods in different situations?
(a) In what ways is the assignment of actors to tasks different from and similar to the more general allocation of resources to goals?
(b) How can a group of actors select a goal to pursue?
(c) How does the presence of significant conflicts of interest among actors affect the desirability of different resource allocation
methods?
(d) How do different kinds of information processing limitations of actors affect the desirability of different methods? For example,
are some methods appropriate for coordinating people that would not be appropriate for coordinating computer processors, and vice
versa? What new methods for coordinating people become desirable when human information processing capacities are augmented
by computers?
(2) What are the alternative methods for planning a sequence of interdependent actions by different actors and what are their relative
advantages and disadvantages?
(3) How general are coordination processes?
(a) Are there a number "generic coordination processes" that are found in very manysituations? If so, what are they? For example, are
there general heuristics for coordination that are analogous to the general problem-solving heuristics studied in cognitive science and
artificial intelligence?
(b) To what extent does the ability to coordinate well depend on general knowledge about coordination as opposed to specific
knowledge about particular tasks and situations?
Research Methodologies:
(1) Empirical studies of human coordination. This category can include a variety of empirical methodologies, such as:
(a) ethnographic field observations of organizational coordination processes,
(b) laboratory experiments with group problem-solving, and
(c) econometric studies of firms and markets as coordination mechanisms. These studies can be used both to stimulate the development
of new theory (e.g., a taxonomy of coordination processes) and to test existing theories (e.g., the prediction that reducing coordination
cost should lead to a greater proportion of market coordination).
(2) Design of new technologies for supporting human coordination. This category includes designing new computer and
communications systems to support a wide variety of kinds of coordination tasks at different levels of generality: writing, design, project
management, meetings, decision-making, etc. In some cases, the design of such systems will embody and make more concrete a prior
theory; in other cases, a good idea for system design will stimulate new theory.
(3) Design and experimentation with new methods for coordinating distributed and parallel processing computer systems. This category
includes experimentation with different methods for solving the coordination problems that arise in distributed and parallel computer
systems such as synchronization, and task assignment. Again, such experiments may, in some cases apply previous theories, and in other
cases help generate new theories.
(4) Formal representation and analysis of coordination processes. This category can include at least two kinds of formal modelling: -
(a) Mathematical modelling. Much of the work in economics falls in this category.
- PhD Thesis Summary Presentations by Students - Contd...
31. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
20. Lecture #29-30 2 hrs (29.10.12)
Kum-Yew Lai, Thomas W. Malone, Keh-Chiang Yu, Object Lens: A "Spreadsheet" for Cooperative Work,
Transactions on Information Systems, ACM, Oct. 1988, pp 332 – 353.
By defining and modifying
templates for various semi-
structured objects, users can
represent information about people,
tasks, products, messages, and many
other kinds of information in a form
that can be processed intelligently
by both people and their computers.
– Passive information
By collecting these objects in
customizable folders, users can
create their own displays that
summarize selected information
from the objects in table or tree
formats. - Aggregate information
By creating semi-autonomous
agents, users can specify rules for
automatically processing this
information in different ways at
different times. – Active Rules
Editing instances: Users can insert any combination of text, numeric, links, and bitmap in any field.
Creating new instances
Creating new object types
Changing the display format and other properties of object types: Users can change the display for mast for all objects of
any type by changing the Template that defines that specific object type - displayed fields, names of displayed fields,
alternative and default values, link display style – icon/embedded template.
Folder: contain links to objects not the objects themselves.
Creating agents and rules
Performing actions on objects
Navigation
Information saving and sharing
32. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
Kevin Crowston and Thomas W. Malone, Computational Agents To Support Cooperative Work, Working Paper Non
2008-88, Centre for information Systems Research, MIT, 1988
Computational agents act autonomously on behalf of their human principals by performing some, but usually not all of
the tasks involved in cooperative work. Sometimes these agents help a principal process messages to and from third
parties; in other cases the agents themselves carry out conversations on behalf of their principals.
Agents could also be used to support an individual working alone on some task. For example, an agent could be used
to scan the environment and inform its principal when some condition holds.
These agents are semiautonomous: autonomous, because once they have been created, they continue to process
messages without the explicit attention of their human user, semiautonomous because their knowledge and processing
rules can always be inspected and modified by the principal and because they may often refer messages to the principal
rather than handling the messages themselves.
Examples of computerized agents.
Agent Goals Actions Triggers
33. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
Information Lens Sorting and prioritizing Arrival of mail for
mail sorting agent mail Deleting messages, principal
moving messages to
folders
Information Lens Finding interesting Sending mail to the Third party sends a
"anyone" agent messages principal message
Buyer agents Finding products
Principal asks for a
Informing the principal
product
Buying a product
Negotiating a purchase
Seller agents Ongoing
Finding a potential Telling the buyer about
buyer a product
Selling a product Negotiating a sale
Redistribution agent Sending mail to third Third party sends a
Redistributing parties message
messages to third
parties
Someone agent Third party sends a
Sending messages to Selecting a recipient message
the "right" person and resending messages
Question answering Answering third Third party sends a
agents parties' questions Determining the question
answer, sending the
reply
Calendar agent Maintaining the
principal's calendar Recording announced Receipt of event
events, scheduling announcement or
appointments, requests for an
reminding principal appointment
Project management Tracking progress of
agent subtasks Remember expected Arrival of deadlines;
completion dates, and receipt of commitments
completions, send or completion
reminders for announcements
overdue projects
Jintae Lee And Thomas W. Malone, Partially Shared Views: A Scheme For Communicating Among Groups That Use
Different Type Hierarchies, TOIS, ACM, Jan 1990, pp 1-26
Extension of Object Lens
Translation schemes that preserve the original “meaning” of a given type of object as much as possible while
allowing different groups to create or change their type definitions with as much autonomy as possible.
34. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
a. No Common language: Pair-wise Translation through dictionaries of translation rules from each source language to each
targhet language B. Each group may need n-1 dictionaries.
e.g., A rule contained in a dictionary for objects that Group B receives from Group A:
IF the object type is GRADUATE STUDENT
and the value of SUPPORT field is TA,
THEN convert the object type to INSTRUCTOR,
and map the fields as follows:
Student ID SSN
TranslateDPT(DEPARTMENT) DPT
b. Identical Group language: All groups share the same object type hierarchy.
c. External Common Language: Each group needs max 2 dictionaries.
d. Internal Common language: All types that exist in the separate groups are specialisation of types of common language.
Translate the message to common ancestor. All those fields that are not in ancestor are treated as part of main text and pu in the
beginning of text field. Include the name of sending group and nearest ancestor of the object type in common hierarchy.
e. Common language as a Superset of Group Language: When a group receives an object of unknown type, that type and any of
its super-types that are locally unknown are automatically imported into the local type hierarchy.
Assignment: Extend the Agents for the software development teams. Propose other adaption and extensions of Object
lens for the contemporary IDEs used by collaborative software development teams.
21. Lecture #31 (2.11.12)
Greenberg, Saul, Carl Gutwin, and Mark Roseman. "Semantic Telepointers for Groupware." In Computer-Human
Interaction, 1996. Proceedings., Sixth Australian Conference on, pp. 54-61. IEEE, 1996
multiple cursors or telepointers help mediate conversation. Their location indicates where the other person is in the workspace; they
focus attention around what people are doing; and they are used to gesture around the shared objects on the display
35. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
Telepointers for Relaxed -WYSIWIS Views: Format and representation difference
Overloading Telepointers: information about single user (interaction Mode, system state); multiuser (identity, action) etc.
Greenberg, Saul, and Mark Roseman. "Groupweb: A WWW Browser as Real Time Groupware." In Conference
companion on Human factors in computing systems: common ground, pp. 271-272. ACM, 1996
Roseman, Mark, and Saul Greenberg. "Teamrooms: Network Places for Collaboration." In Proceedings of the 1996
ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, pp. 325-333. ACM, 1996
TeamRooms is based on the metaphor of a place.
Attributes of places: they are long-lived, their contents are persistent, they provide a forum for people to communicate, and they can
contain both general and special purpose tools.
Default room, Enetering other room (1a), Locating other users (1b), user information (1c), creating new room
36. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
Standard Tools: Chat tool (1j), Shared Whiteboard 1i),
Awareness features- list of room users (1f), one telepointers for each user (1l), Room overview radar (1d)
Applets: user can move, resize, or delete applets; Teamorrm keeps a complete version history of each applet.
Postit (1m), Outliner (1h), Concept map (1g), games (1n), Image tool ( 1k), External URL (1e), Groupweb, Database, File
transfer
Assignment: Review few contemporary co-browsing tools.
22. Lecture #32-33 (5.11.12)
Gutwin, Carl, Gwen Stark, and Saul Greenberg. "Support for workspace awareness in educational groupware." In The
first international conference on Computer support for collaborative learning, pp. 147-156. L. Erlbaum Associates Inc.,
1995.
37. Sanjay Goel, CSCW Lecture Notes and Assignments JIIT 2012
Gutwin, Carl, and Saul Greenberg. "Workspace awareness for groupware." In Conference companion on Human
factors in computing systems: common ground, pp. 208-209. ACM, 1996.
Gutwin, Carl, Saul Greenberg, and Mark Roseman. "Workspace awareness in real-time distributed groupware:
Framework, widgets, and evaluation." People and Computers (1996): 281-298.
Some Real Episodes (A pair composing a 2 page layout using provided material – articles, headlines, picture)
Mixed-focus collaboration. Linda and Mark start the task together, with both attending to the same part of the workspace. As they talk,
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they decide that Linda will work on page one and Mark on page two, and they determine roughly which objects will go on each page.
They then shift their focus of attention to their individual pages, and start laying out the material. As work progresses, their focus shifts
back and forth between individual and shared activity, and between different parts of the layout.
Lightweight information gathering. Mark’s attention is briefly drawn from his own work by Linda moving objects back and forth
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in her area. With a quick glance, he notices that she is working on article one, that she has moved from the top left part of the page to
the top right, and that she appears to be having trouble getting two columns of the story to fit into the available space.
Integration of information with previous knowledge. Linda notices Mark move over to work on the headlines at the top of page 1.
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Recalling the instructions that the editor had given them earlier, she says, ―Let‘s not forget to leave space for that picture that they want
in there.‖
Anticipation of another’s actions. Mark watches Linda position her first article down the length of the page, and thinks that this may
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be the way she plans to position all of her articles, so he speaks up: ―Um, I think we should decide on sort of a consistent layout for the
two pages together because I‘m doing things in the top half and the bottom half, and it looks like you‘re going all the way down the
page.‖
Using awareness of activity. Linda knows that Mark is working on article two, so when she finds a column from that story hiding
under the desk, she hands it to him, saying, ―I think this is one of yours.‖
Interpreting references. Mark and Linda are busy with their own tasks when Mark says, ―Do you think that this should go down
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here?‖ Linda glances over to see what he is pointing at and then says: ―It‘d look OK, but I‘m not sure it‘ll fit.‖ Later, Mark hears the
sound of paper being cut with scissors, and without looking up, says, ―Can I have those when you‘re done?‖
Workspace awareness lowers the overhead of working together, creates new opportunities for collaboration, and provides people with
a larger context for their actions. In face to face group work people use peripheral vision, rapid glances, three-dimensional sound,
and the ability to see the entire workspace.
Workspace awareness Problems in groupware
When shared activity moves from a face-to-face setting to distributed groupware, many things change that impair people‘s abilities to
maintain workspace awareness:
The perceivable environment shrinks drastically. Where people could see all of a fairly large physical workspace, they now have
only a tiny viewport through the computer screen.
Some means of communication are weakened: our hands‘ capabilities for expression are only poorly approximated with a mouse
cursor and speech loses much of its audio quality and directional component over typical voice links.
Common ways of interacting with computer applications, such as through menus or function keys, hide actions that are visible in
a physical workspace. Computer systems cannot handle many of the ingrained perceptual and physical abilities that we use to
maintain workspace awareness in a face-to-face setting, and must replace them with means of perceiving the environment that are
comparatively slow and clumsy.
Groupware approaches that allow participants to control their own views of the virtual workspace can further obscure people‘s
locations and activities.
Video techniques that bring people‘s hands and bodies into the virtual workspace are limited by scalability and resolution.
Groupware designers face two operational problems:
They must know what awareness information a groupware system should capture about another‘s interaction with the workspace.
They must consider how this information should be presented to other participants.
Direct communication. People explicitly communicate information about their interaction with the workspace; this communication is
primarily verbal, although gestures and deictic references are also common.
Indirect productions. People commonly communicate through actions, expressions, or speech that is not explicitly directed at the other
members of the group, but that is intentionally public
Consequential communication. Watching or listening to others as they work provides people with a great deal of information about
their interaction with the workspace
Feedthrough. Information can also be gathered by observing the effects of someone‘s actions on the artifacts in the workspace
Environmental feedback. People also perceive higher-level feedthrough from the indirect effects of another‘s actions in the larger
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workspace. For example, in a control room situation, seeing some measured value decrease can provide evidence that another member of
the team has initiated a particular procedure.