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Awareness, CSCW, HCI.
In my dissertation research I am exploring the questions of what comprises adequate information about the presence and activities of collaborators for the purpose of moving from asynchronous to synchronous work situations. The pertinent questions are: (1) What information do collaborators need to have about co-workers in order to coordinate these transitions? (2) Is there an alternative to video for supporting these transitions? (3) Can the important information that people need be distilled and displayed in textual or graphical forms that are low cost, but still lightweight?
In order to inform people about the availability and activities of remote coworkers, systems designers have used video almost exclusively [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. However, I believe that video generally provides more information than is needed in most situations. In addition, video is expensive, in terms of the cost of the hardware, the time it takes to establish a connection, and in terms of the computing power and network bandwidth needed to process it and transfer it.
The adequacy of the information provided can be determined by measuring the frequency and nature of the use of the information and whether other avenues are used to obtain it, i.e., if the information they require is available through the computer based tool, but they always use another method, such as the telephone, to get it. If it is easier to get the information by telephone or another medium, then the computer-based tool is inadequate, either in terms of speed, usability, or accuracy. In other words, if people do not use, or only occasionally use the tool (go out of band) then the usefulness of the tool is questionable.
Physical distance dramatically decreases the likelihood of collaboration among team members[1]. This research is an attempt to diminish the effects of physical distance. When people are working face-to-face or in physical proximity, they naturally have access to information about one another. This information may include, among other things, the presence of others in the work group, what they are working on, whether they are interruptible, and who they are working with. However, situations in which collaboration occurs vary across a number of parameters and the needed information will vary depending on the situation.
When people collaborate on a project, they are likely to work in a variety of modes or situations. They may work together in real-time or at different times as when exchanging e-mail. They may be highly dependent on the responses of others or may have low dependence on others. In addition to time and dependency, other parameters over which collaborative work may vary include formality of interaction, group size, group roles, task, and location.
Awareness information is any information which answers the questions posed by the six �W� words: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Such information can be provided visually, via video, textual or graphical displays, or through sound, smell, taste, or touch. Although each of the five senses can be used, it may not be feasible or practical to use them. Providing scents or odors to indicate someone's presence may be both intrusive and uninformative.
The gathering of awareness information can be implicit or explicit. Implicit information can be gathered through video cameras, speakers, active badges, infrared sensors, keyboard or mouse use, or any methods that do not require the user to enter information explicitly. Explicit information is provided by the users in the form of calendars, schedules, �Do not disturb� signs, and the like.
Decisions on which types of information to gather and provide will depend on the collaborative situations which are being supported and on the structure of the organization.
In order to determine what information is required, I will build a set of information displays which provide subsets of the information available and allow users to select which information they wish to receive. I will measure the use of these displays, the selections users make, the levels of collaboration before and after introduction of the tool, and the users' satisfaction with the information provided. These information displays will be used as part of the CREW (Collaboratory for Research on Electronic Work) desktop.
CREW is a community of researchers located at the University of Michigan and at sponsoring corporations interested in the issues of providing electronic support for work. These researchers are distributed across the campus and at corporate sites. The CREW desktop is a computer-based environment which provides members of the CREW community with access to other members, information about CREW related events, and access to shared documents. The piece of the CREW desktop that I will build will provide subscribers with information about other CREW researchers, their activities, location, availability, and interests, as well as access to a general events calendar, individual calendars, activity in the CREW desktop and activity on their workstations. In addition, access to tools such as postable notes and e-mail will be included.
Although this software will be developed specifically for the CREW community, I anticipate its usefulness to the university community at large (in the form of the UM desktop) as well as to other distributed research and business communities.
Copyright on this material is held by the author.