Scribd
Upload
35 views34 pages

Flow of Design and Graphics

Computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) studies how technology can support collaboration between groups of people. It examines how people work together in groups and how technology affects this. CSCW tools include communication aids like email and chat rooms, as well as shared applications that allow real-time collaboration. Implementing effective CSCW faces challenges in addressing social aspects of collaboration, network delays, and evaluating their impact on group dynamics.

Uploaded by

anwar kadi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
35 views34 pages

Flow of Design and Graphics

Computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) studies how technology can support collaboration between groups of people. It examines how people work together in groups and how technology affects this. CSCW tools include communication aids like email and chat rooms, as well as shared applications that allow real-time collaboration. Implementing effective CSCW faces challenges in addressing social aspects of collaboration, network delays, and evaluating their impact on group dynamics.

Uploaded by

anwar kadi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 34

Computer-Supported

Cooperative Work
(CSCW)

Thinking about groups, collaboration,


and communication
CSCW

 Computer Supported Cooperative


Work

 HCI connotations CSCW


 individual use

 psychology
CSCW

 Study of how people work together as


a group and how technology affects
this

 Support the social processes of work,


often among geographically separated
people
Examples
 The “system” becomes the medium, the
moderator, rather than “just” a tool
 There are now many collaborations, like:
 Scientists collaborating on a technical issue
 Authors editing a document together
 Programmers debugging a system
concurrently
 Workers collaborating over a shared video
conferencing application
 Buyers and sellers meeting on eBay
The second “C”

 Group work not always cooperative or


collaborative
CSC “anything”

 Not just about “work” anymore

 Support the social processes of a


group of people communicating or
collaborating
Examples

 Awareness of people in your family,


community, physical space...
 Mobile communication

 Online discussions, blogs

 Sharing photos, stories, experiences

 Recommender systems

 Playing games
Groupware
 Software specifically designed
 to support group working or playing
 with cooperative requirements in mind
 NOT just tools for communication
 Groupware can be classified by
 when and where the participants are
working
 the function it performs for cooperative work
 Specific and difficult problems with
groupware implementation
The Time/Space Matrix
Classify groupware by:
when the participants are working,
at the same time or not
where the participants are working,
at the same place or not
same different
Common names for axes: time time
time:
synchronous/asynchronoussame
place
place:
co-located/remote
different
place
Applied to “traditional”
technology
same different
time time

same face-to-face
conversation, post-it note
place whiteboard

different
phone call letter
place
Applied to computer
technology
Time

Synchronous Asynchronous
Face-to-face Post-it note
Co-located
E-meeting room Argument. tool
Place
Phone call Letter
Remote
Video window,wall Email
A More-fleshed Out Taxonomy

A typical space/time matrix (after Baecker, Grudin, Buxton, & Greenberg, 1995, p.742)
Styles of Systems

 Computer-mediated communication

 Meeting and decision support systems

 Shared applications and tools


Computer-mediated
Communication (CMC) Aids
 Examples
 Email, Chats, virtual worlds
 Desktop videoconferencing --
Examples:
• CUSee-Me
• MS NetMeeting
• SGI InPerson
CMC applications

 Support a wide range of


communication needs
 Allow large number of people to
quickly and easily communicate
 Can be combined with other activities
and systems
 Lead to many new social conventions
and issues
Social implications

 Less rich channels – fewer details,


higher likelihood of misunderstanding
 More anonymous

 More autonomy, more ability to control


message
 Can be less intrusive
 I’ll IM you before I stop by your office
Food for thought…

 Why aren’t videophones more


popular?
 How and when do you use Instant
Messaging? How does this differ from
email?
 What communication technology do
you still want?
Meeting and Decision
Support Systems
 Examples
 Corporate decision-support
conference room
• Provides ways of rationalizing decisions,
voting, presenting cases, etc.
• Concurrency control is important
 Shared computer classroom/cluster
• Group discussion/design aid tools
Shared Applications and
Tools
 Shared editors, design tools, etc.
 Want to avoid “locking” and allow
multiple people to concurrently work
on document
 Requires some form of contention
resolution
 How do you show what others are
doing?
Social Issues

 People bring in different perspectives


and views to a collaboration
environment
 Goal of CSCW systems is often to
establish some common ground and
to facilitate understanding and
interaction
Turn Taking

 There are many subtle social


conventions about turn taking in an
interaction
 Personal space, closeness
 Eye contact
 Gestures
 Body language
 Conversation cues
Geography, Position

 In group dynamics, the physical layout


of individuals matters a lot
 “Power positions”
Awareness
 What is happening?
 Who is there
e.g. IM buddy list
 What has happened
… and why?
Groupware implementation

 Often more complicated


 feedback and network delays
 architectures for groupware
 feedthrough and network traffic
 toolkits, robustness and scaling
Feedback and network
delays
screen local remote remote
feedback machine machine application
network
9 8 7 6
5
2 3 4
1
user types client server

 At least 2 network messages + four context switches


 With protocols 4 or more network messages
Types of architecture
 centralised – single copy of application and data
 client-server – simplest case
 master-slave special case of client-server
• server merged with one client

 replicated – copy on each workstation


 also called peer-peer
 + local feedback
 race conditions
Feedthrough & traffic
 Need to inform all other clients of changes

 Few networks support broadcast messages,


so …
n participants  n–1 network
messages!

 Solution: increase granularity


 reduce frequency of feedback
 but …
poor feedthrough  loss of shared context

 Trade-off: timeliness vs. network traffic


Evaluation
 Evaluating the usability and utility of CSCW tools is
quite challenging
 Need more participants
 Logistically difficult
 Apples - oranges

 Often use field studies and ethnographic evaluations


to assist

 Groupware and Social Dynamics: Eight Challenges for


Developers
 By Jonathan Grudin (now at Microsoft)
 http://www.ics.uci.edu/~grudin/Papers/CACM94/cacm94.html
Groupware Challenges
(Grudin)
 Who does work vs. who gets benefit

 Critical mass
 prisoner’s dilemma
More Grudin challenges

 Social, political, and motivational


factors

 No “standard procedures”
More Grudin challenges

 Infrequent features

 Groupware intuition
More Grudin challenges

 Managing acceptance

 Evaluation is longer, more


complicated, less precise
Recommendations
 Add group features to existing apps
 Benefit all group members
 Start with niches were application is
highly needed
 Consider evaluation and adoption
early
 Expect and plan for development and
evaluation to take longer
Example

 TeamSpace: a meeting capture and


access system

You might also like