Chapter 4: Designing for collaboration and communication

1
Chapter 4 Designing for collaboration and
communication
Presenters Kiranmai Bellam Mark
Kuhr Sriharsha Sathyanarayana Rambharat Reddy
Bontha DeLane Abight Albanie Bolton UG Wilson
2
Overview

• Conversational mechanisms
• Coordination mechanisms
• Awareness mechanisms
• Examples of technologies designed to extend how
  people
• talk and socialise
• work together
• play and learn together

3
Conversational mechanisms

• Various mechanisms and rules are followed when
  holding a conversation, e.g.mutual greetings
• A Hi there
• B Hi!
• C Hi
• A All right?
• C Good, hows it going?
• A Fine, how are you?
• C OK
• B So-so. Hows life treating you?

4
Conversational rules

• Sacks et al. (1978) work on conversation analysis
  describe three basic rules
• Rule 1 the current speaker chooses the next
  speaker by asking an opinion, question, or
  request
• Rule 2 another person decides to start speaking
• Rule 3 the current speaker continues talking

5
Conversational rules

• Turn-taking used to coordinate conversation
• A Shall we meet at 8?
• B Um, can we meet a bit later?
• A Shall we meet at 8?
• B Wow, look at him?
• A Yes what a funny hairdo!
• B Um, can we meet a bit later?
• Back channeling to signal to continue and
  following
• Uh-uh, umm, ahh

6
More conversational rules

• farewell rituals
• Bye then, see you, yer bye, see you later.
• implicit and explicit cues
• e.g., looking at watch, fidgeting with coat and
  bags
• explicitly saying Oh dear, must go, look at the
  time, Im late

7
Breakdowns in conversation

• When someone says something that is
  misunderstood
• Speaker will repeat with emphasis
• A this one?
• B no, I meant that one!
• Also use tokens
• Eh? Quoi? Huh? What?

8
What happens in technology-mediated conversations?

• Do same conversational rules apply?
• Are there more breakdowns?
• How do people repair them for
• Phone?
• Email?
• IM?
• Texting?

9
Designing collaborative technologies

• Challenges confronting the designers is to
  consider how to facilitate different kinds of
  communication where there are obstacles
  preventing it from happening naturally.

10

• The main aim is to develop systems that allow
  people to communicate with each other when they
  are in physically different locations.
• The key issue is how to allow people to carry on
  communicating as if they are in same place.
• How to design collaborative technologies to help
  co-located groups to communicate.

11
Communicating in physically different locations

• Video Example
• Emails, Videoconferencing,
• Videophones, Computer Conferencing, Chat rooms
  and IM.
• Online MUDs and MOOs (text based) were created to
  allow users communicate exclusively using text.

12
Activity how do the conversations differ for
the same game of ZORKI?
13
3D virtual worlds
The rooftop garden in BowieWorld Users take
part by dressing up as an avatar, including
penguins and real people Once an avatar has
entered a world they can explore it and chat to
other avatars Source www.worlds.com/bowie
14
Massive 3D virtual worlds

• Second Life (2003)
• Over 2 million users
• Habbo Hotel (2000)
• Over 7 million players
• Massively multiplayer online game
• What kinds of conversation take place in these
  environments?

15
Media spaces

• They combine audio,video and computer systems to
  extend the world of desks,chairs,walls ad
  ceilings.
• Example
• Xerox Media Space,Hydra,Cruiser and Video
  window system.

16
A typical media space node
17
Video Window system (Bellcore, 1989)

• Shared space that allowed people in different
  locations to carry on a conversation as if in
  same room.
• 3 x 8 ft picture-window between two sites with
  video and audio
• The system was designed to active throughout the
  day so that anyone entering one room could speak
  to whoever in the other room.
• People did interact via the window but strange
  things happened (Kraut, 1990)

18
Sketch of VideoWindow
19
How the system was used and problems with it

• People constantly talked about the system
• Spoke more to other people in the same room
  rather than in other room
• When tried to get closer to someone in other room
  had counter intuitive effect - went out of range
  of camera and microphone
• No monitoring to this problem
• The system allowed only public conversations

20
Hypermirror (Morikawa and Maesako, 1998)

• allows people to feel as if they are in the same
  virtual place even though in physically different
  spaces

(woman in white sweater is in a different room to
the other three)
People in different places are superimposedon
the same screento make them appear as if in same
space
21
Creating personal space in Hypermirror
2) Two in this room are invadingthe virtual
personal spaceof the other person by appearing
to bephysically on top of woman in white sweater
3) Two in the room move apart to allow person
in other space more virtual personal space
22
Everyone happy
23
Activity

• Do you think it is better to develop technologies
  that allow people to talk at a distance as if
  they were face-to-face or to develop
  technologies(Sms,IMs etc) that will support new
  ways of conversing?

24
Communicating in Co-located settings

• Number of sharable interfaces has been developed
  to promote communication between co-located
  groups.
• Examples..
• Smartboards,tabletops,and public
  displays, plasma posters, notification collage
  system

25

• To situate shared displays in public places
  e.g.,in hallways,reception areas.
• Plasma posters are designed to enable users to
  send notes, news items from PCs in their offices
  to a large public display.
• Dynamo system enables social groups to share and
  exchange a variety of media on a large shared
  display by hooking laptops, memory sticks etc.,

26
Synchronous computer-mediated communication

• Conversations are supported in real-time through
  voice and/or typing
• Examples include video conferencing, VOIP, MUDs
  and chat
• Benefits include
• Not having to physically face people may increase
  shy peoples confidence
• Allows people to keep abreast of the goings-on in
  an organization without having to move from their
  office
• Problems
• Difficult to establish eye contact with images of
  others
• People can behave badly when behind the mask of
  an avatar

27
Asynchronous computer-mediated communication

• Communication takes place remotely at different
  times
• email, newsgroups, texting
• Benefits include
• Read any place any time
• Flexible as to how to deal with it
• Can make saying things easier
• Problems include
• FLAMING!!!
• Message overload
• False expectations as to when people will reply

28
Coordination mechanisms

• When a group of people act or interact together
  they need to coordinate themselves
• e.g., playing football, navigating a ship
• They use
• verbal and non-verbal communication
• schedules, rules, and conventions
• shared external representations

29
Verbal and non-verbal communication

• Talk is central
• Non-verbal also used to emphasize and as
  substitute
• e.g., nods, shakes, winks, glances, gestures and
  hand-raising
• Formal meetings
• explicit structures such as agendas, memos, and
  minutes are employed to coordinate the activity

30
Schedules, rules and conventions

• Schedules used to organize regular activities in
  large organizations
• Formal rules, like the writing of monthly reports
  enable organizations to maintain order and keep
  track
• Conventions, like keeping quiet in a library, are
  a form of courtesy to others

31
Schedule ExampleAuburn University

• A student cannot attend more than one lecture at
  a time
• A professor cannot give more than one lecture or
  seminar at a given time
• A room cannot be allocated to more than one
  lecture or seminar at a given time
• Only certain number of students can be placed in
  a room depending upon the size

32
Shared Calendars

• Trying to schedule meetings for different people
  in an organization can be a nightmare!
• Secretary will send out a mail or try to call
• Some people may reply others may not
• When secretary eventually gets back to them with
  a proposed date, its often too late!

33
Shared Calendars (contd)

• All in all, it is a time consuming and laborious
  activity
• Research shows that shared calendars are
  successful
• Range of facilities, much faster than manual
  scheduling
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v5JMUSsDjXiY

34
Shared external representations

• Common method used to coordinate collaborative
  activities,
• e.g., checklists, tables, to-do lists
• They can provide external information on
• who is working on what
• When it is being worked on
• where it is being worked on
• when a piece of work is supposed to be finished
• whom it goes to next

35
A shared external coordination representation
36
Collaborative technologies to support coordination

• There are a variety of software tools designed to
  support scheduling, planning and coordinating
• e.g., group calendars, electronic schedulers,
  project management tools, and workflow tools
• Tools that provide interactive form of scheduling
  and planning are the main kinds of collaborative
  technologies.
• Convention is the main mechanism implemented.

37

• While designing co ordination mechanism it is
  important how it acceptable to the people.
• Getting the right balance between human co
  ordination and system co ordination is very
  important.
• Too little control the system breaks down.
• Too much system control the users will rebel.
• Example File locking mechanism.

38
File Locking Mechanism

• Mostly used in shared applications to prevent
  users from crashing.
• When some one is working on a file then it
  becomes in accessible to others.
• Who is using the file and for how long is
  available to others.
• This type of mechanism is considered to be rigid
  form of co ordination.

39
File Locking Mechanism (Floor Control)

• When ever a user wants to work on file he must
  initially request The Floor.
• If no one is using that file then he is given the
  floor.
• If other user wants to use the file then he
  requests the floor.
• The current user is notified and tells the
  requester how much time he will be using the
  file.
• A kind of co ordination mechanism takes place
  between users on how to collaborate rather then
  simply saying permission denied.
• Flexible form of co ordination.
• http//www.bnet.com/2422-13722_23-175108.html
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v5s5EvhHy7eQ

40
Awareness mechanisms

• Involves knowing who is around, what is
  happening, and who is talking with whom
• Peripheral awareness
• keeping an eye on things happening in the
  periphery of vision
• Overhearing and overseeing - allows tracking of
  what others are doing without explicit cues

41
Lo tech awareness mechanism
42
Activity

• Groups of 6 with three groups within the group
• http//www.ohio4h.org/youth/teen_leadership/docume
  nts/KelbaughCommunicationsPuzzleActivityinpdf.pdf
  

43
Designing technologies to support awareness

• Provide awareness of others who are in different
  locations
• Involves knowing who is around, what is happening
  and who is talking with whom
• Peripheral awareness
• Keeping an eye on things happening in the
  periphery of vision
• Overhearing and overseeing allows tracking of
  what others are doing without explicit cues
• Early example was media spaces
• extend the world of desks, chairs, walls and
  ceilings (Harrison et al, 1997)
• Examples Clearboard and Portholes

44
Portholes (Xerox PARC)
Regularly updated digitized images of people in
their offices appeared on everyones desktop
machines throughout day and night
45
Clearboard (Ishii et al, 1993)

• Transparent board that shows other persons
  facial expression on your board as you draw

http//tangible.media.mit.edu/projects/ClearBoard/

46
Notification systems

• Users notify others as opposed to being
  constantly monitored
• Provide information about shared objects and
  progress of collaborative tasks
• examples Tickertape, Babble

47
Elvin

• Elvin is a distributed awareness system that
  provides a range of client services (Segall and
  Arnold, 1997)
• It includes Tickertape, one of the first
  lightweight messaging systems

48
Babble (IBM, Erickson et al, 1999)

• Circle with marblesrepresents peopletaking
  part inconversation in a chatroom
• Those in the middleare doing the mostchatting
• Those towardsthe outside are less active in
  the conversation

http//www.research.ibm.com/SocialComputing/babble
.htm
49
Technical Papers

• http//www.billbuxton.com/BG_FG.html
• http//www.dourish.com/publications/chi97-awarenes
  s.html
• http//www.adobe.com/manufacturing/pdfs/mfg_design
  _collaboration_sb.pdf

50
Key points

• Social mechanisms, like turn-taking, conventions,
  etc., enable us to collaborate and coordinate our
  activities
• Keeping aware of what others are doing and
  letting others know what you are doing are
  important aspects of collaborative working and
  socializing
• Many collaborative technologies systems have been
  built to support collaboration

51
Thank You for Your Time

• Question
• Answer