We conducted a principle components analysis of users' actions in an enterprise file-sharing service. We describe four factors, their attributes with respect to social action and awareness, and their implications for design.

1. Patterns of Usage
in an Enterprise File-Sharing Service:
Publicizing, Discovering, & Telling the News
Michael Muller, David R Millen, & Jonathan Feinberg*
IBM Research / Collaborative User Experience
IBM Center for Social Software
Cambridge, MA, USA
* Jonathan Feinberg is now at Google.
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2. Agenda
• File-sharing in an enterprise
• Factor analysis of file-sharing usage patterns
– Upload & Publicize
– Annotate & Watch
– Discover & Tell
– Refind
• Interpretation
– Both more and less social than anticipated
– Design what and for whom?
– Who is missing? Future analyses
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3. File-Sharing in an Enterprise
• Cattail, an enterprise file-sharing service
– Centralized
– Authenticated for all access
– Simpler than peer-to-peer or public networks
• Cattail statistical profile
– Users 88270 (many job roles, 80 countries)
– Uploaders15943 (18%)
– Files 120288 (diverse formats)
– Downloads 728509
• Related work
– Dropbox / UD Dropbox (Schwartz, 2007)
– Apocrita (Reynolds et al., 2005)
– Studies of file-sharing (Christin et al., 2005; Lee, 2003; Rader, 2009;
Voida et al., 2006; Whalen et al., 2008)
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4. Cattail Features and Capabilities
• Capabilities
– Upload – Share (recommend) *
– Download * – Collect *
– – Annotate *
– – Watch *
* Can be done on own files or on files that were uploaded by others
A F
H
B
P
C D
Q
G
E
B
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5. Factor Analysis
• Review of the method of factor analysis
– Start with too many variables
– Find subsets of variables that are highly correlated with one another
summarize each subset of variables as a factor
– Continue the analysis in terms of the smaller number of factors
– Figures of merit: Eigenvalue & variance-accounted-for
• The 10 variables in our factor analysis
On own file On file of other
Upload
Download
Share
Collect
Annotate
Watch
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6. Factor Analysis
Factor
Eigenvalue 2.995 1.192 1.061 1.001
% Variance 29.945 11.919 10.610 10.011
Factor Upload Annotate Discover Refind
Measure Publicize Watch Tell
Upload • .935 • .100 .125 .063
Download-Own .064 .021 .014 • .992 •
Download-Others’ .033 .066 • .858 • .042
Share-Own • .734 • .202 .198 .073
Share-Others’ .241 .175 • .563 • -.015
Collect-Own • .855 • .062 .035 -.028
Collect-Others’ .085 • .523 • • .407 • -.048
Annotate-Own .276 • .756 • -.021 .071
Annotate-Others’ .134 • .874 • .097 .046
Watch-Others’ .025 • .761 • .184 -.040
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7. Factor Analysis Results
• Upload Publicize (15935 users, 18.1%)
Upload + Share-own + Collect-own
– Interest in an audience for own files
• Annotate Watch (9780 users, 11.1%)
Annotate-own + Annotate-other + Watch-other
– Adding value / reviewing rating
– Social awareness
• Discover Tell (85303 users, 96.7%)
Download-other + Share-other + Collect-other
– Interest in an audience for others’ files
– Personal utility of collections
• Refind (5149 users, 5.8%)
Refind
– Download own files - Cattail as an extension of the user’s local drives
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8. Interpretation: How do people use file-sharing in enterprise?
• Both more social and less social than anticipated
– More social
• Sharing, Collecting for use by others
– Upload Publicize
– Discover Tell
• Similar to “Information Curators” finding (ECSCW 2009)
• Apparently easy to organize (confer Rader, 2009, in public networks)
– “Yours, mine, and… ours” appears to be possible in enterprise sharing
– Less social
• Refind
– Public-access files with no viewers a sharing-failure case?
• Users appropriated the technology for unanticipated purposes
(Dourish, 2001; Kujala Kauppinen, 2004)
– Impression management (see also Thom-Santelli et al, 2008)
– Curating (ECSCW 2009)
– Refinding
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9. A UI for each Factor? Or combined UI?
Factor Upload Annotate Discover
Refind
Publish Watch Tell
Upload 4301 13269 5143
-
Publish (4.9%) (15.0%) (5.8%)
Annotate 4301 9368 2054
-
Watch (4.9%) (10.6%) (2.3%)
Discover 13269 9368 4640
-
Tell (15.0%) (10.6%) (5.3%)
5143 2054 4640
Refind -
(5.8%) (2.3%) (5.3%)
15935 9780 85303 5149
Total
(18.1%) (11.1%) (96.7%) (5.9%)
• Promote files + • Structured • Promote files +
collections discussion collections • Synchroniza-
• Impression threads / file • Impression tion (private
Potential
management • Has my management disk £ Cattail)
Features
• Ratings by annotation • Ratings by • Ego-centric
readers been read? By readers filters
• Search terms whom? • Search terms
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10. A UI for each Factor? Or combined UI?
Factor Upload Annotate Discover
Refind
Publish Watch Tell
Upload 4301 13269 5143
-
Publish (4.9%) (15.0%) (5.8%)
Annotate 4301 9368 2054
-
Watch (4.9%) (10.6%) (2.3%)
Discover 13269 9368 4640
-
Tell (15.0%) (10.6%) (5.3%)
5143 2054 4640
Refind -
(5.8%) (2.3%) (5.3%)
Same features Many users
15935 9780 85303 5149
for Total different
two (18.1%) (11.1%) (96.7%) engage in more
(5.9%)
factors than one factor
• Promote files + • Structured • Promote files +
collections discussion collections • Synchroniza-
Three factors
Three factors
• Impression threads / file • Impression tion (private
deal with
Potential
deal with groups management • Has my management disk £ Cattail) of
awareness
Features
of artifacts • Ratings by annotation • Ratings by • Ego-centric
actions by
readers been read? By readers filters
• Search terms whom? • Search terms others, with
impression
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11. Summary of Contributions
• Four factors in file sharing
– In the enterprise (and beyond?)
– Patterns of sociality
– Patterns of individual utility
– Appropriation of technology for new purposes
• Implications for design
– Unified user interface, supporting
• Work with collections of artifacts
• Impression management
• Ratings by readers
• Awareness of the work of others
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12. Who is Missing? Future Work
• Analyses so far
– How do people use file-sharing in the enterprise?
• Four factors in usage (this note)
– “Information curators” (ECSCW 2009)
– Focused on people who changed the database
• Upload original content
• Contribute: Share (recommend), Annotate, Collect…
• (also Downloaders)
– Our four factors are primarily about visible contributions to the system
• Lurkers in file-sharing
– Lurkers are the modal users (75%)
– How do lurkers use file-sharing?
– What do lurkers need from a file-sharing service?
– Should lurkers eventually become contributors?
– Hearing the “silent” users
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13. Thank you!
michael_muller@us.ibm.com
Slides are on Slideshare.net
tagged with #chi2010
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14. Factor Analysis
Factor
Eigenvalue 2.995 1.192 1.061 1.001
% Variance 29.945 11.919 10.610 10.011
Factor Upload Annotate Discover Refind
Measure Publicize Watch Tell
Upload • .935 • .100 .125 .063
Download-Own .064 .021 .014 • .992 •
Download-Others’ .033 .066 • .858 • .042
Share-Own • .734 • .202 .198 .073
Share-Others’ .241 .175 • .563 • -.015
Collect-Own • .855 • .062 .035 -.028
Collect-Others’ .085 • .523 • • .407 • -.048
Annotate-Own .276 • .756 • -.021 .071
Annotate-Others’ .134 • .874 • .097 .046
Watch-Others’ .025 • .761 • .184 -.040
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